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ON INDIA'S FRONTIER. 



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Scale 3 50 Miles to inch 
Mr Ballantines route — 




ON INDIA'S FRONTIER; 



OR 



NEPAL 

The Gurkhas' Mysterious Land. 



/ BY 

HENRY BALLANTINE, M.A. 

LATE AMERICAN CONSUL AT BOMBAY. AUTHOR OF "MIDNIGHT 
MARCHES THROUGH PERSIA." 




NEW YORK 

J. SELWIN TAIT AND SONS 

65 Fifth Avenue 



V 

Copyright, 1S95, 



J. SELWIN TAIT & SONS, 
New York. 

A// Kzg-his Reserved. 



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To 

HONORABLE CHARLES P. DALY, 

FOR OVER A QUARTER OK A CE^■Tl•R^■ 

President of tJic American GeograpJiical Society; 

AND ONE OF THE FOREMOST PROMOTERS 
OF GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH, 

Z\i\e Dolumc Is IRespectfull^ DeMcateD 

uv 

THE AUTHOR, 



ON INDIA'S FRONTIER; 

OR 

NEPAL, THE GURKHAS' MYSTERIOUS LAND. 
By Henry Ballantine, M„A. 

Late U. S. Consul to Bombay. 



INTRODUCTION. 

" Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further" 
may be said to be the dictum of the British 
Foreign office, written and expressed all along 
the northern boundary of India's frontier, and 
he " may run that readeth it." The traveler 
must abide by this ruling, especially if he be 
a Feringhi, or white man, anywhere within 
the borders of British India, whether he be 
English, American, German, French, or of any 
other foreign extraction, contemplating the 
passage of this boundary with a motive ever 
so peaceful, friendly, or disinterestedo 

He w^ho would overstep this political de- 
marcation from any point on the Hindustan 
1 



3 INTRODUCTION. 

side, is at once seized, broug-ht back into 
India, and ordered to return whence he came. 

As long ago as Sir John Lawrence's time, 
and since then more zealously and jealously- 
maintained, there has been mapped out by 
England, under the supervision of the India 
Government, a Neutral Belt, with the Himalaya 
Mountains for its southern base, and extend- 
ing up northwardly, comprising vast stretches 
of little known, and most of it quite unknown, 
territory, divided up among independent 
tribes more or less hostile to each other. 
These tribes are furnished with arms and 
ammunition, in certain cases to a large extent, 
by the India Government, and are left to act 
as they please, so long as they do not meddle 
with British territory. They constitute what 
are known as the "Buffer" States and are 
used, one and all, as a breakwater against the 
ever-threatening flood of Russian invasion 
from the far north. 

Whenever there is the slightest indication 
of what may seem like Russian aggression 
towards this British -constituted belt, it is 
deemed a sufficient signal of alarm for the 



IN TROD UCTION. 



India Government to do its utmost to head off 
Russia's apparent attempt to invade India, or 
to call upon that Power for an explanation, or 
enter upon a rearrangement of the boundaries 
of the so-called Neutral Belt, encouraging the 
tribes within its borders by bribery, or self- 
interest even, to maintain it intact. Any ap- 
parent encroachment upon this boundary is 
tantamount to a casus belli. 

From the foregoing it will be seen that the 
Policy of the India Government is to let the 
northern frontier tribes maintain their inde- 
pendence, continue to practice deeds of darkness 
and misrule, allow them to cherish any 
internecine course of action they like, while, as 
the paramount power, this Anglo-Indian ruler 
retains the right to interfere, as may best suit 
its purposes, even to the extent of taking the 
part of the stronger against the weaker side, 
and freely distributing war material to those 
whom it favors; — anything, in fact, that will 
promote its frontier policy. 

On the other hand, great as England has 
proved herself to be as a general ameliorator 
of those subject, even at a distance, to her 



IN TROD UCTION. 



dominant sway, it cannot but be regretted 
that her representatives in the far East should 
persistently discourage any commercial, en- 
lightening, or civilizing attempts from outside 
to reach the natives inhabiting this particular 
belt, who so long as they act as able guards 
and protective outposts, ranging themselves 
into a bulwark of resistance against northern 
intrigue, so long have they their independence 
assured them, and their harmful exclusiveness 
guaranteed and abetted by this same India 
Government. 

We are constrained at this point to go back 
and pay tribute to those grand types of men 
who laid the foundations of the present great 
Empire of India. 

There were giants in those days, in every 
sense of the word, men of unflinching principle 
and of great capabilities, unswayed by par- 
tisan interests or political sympathies, com- 
missioned and sent out under the auspices 
of the famous, liberal, The Honorable East 
India Company. These officials can never 
be equalled by their present successors in 
the East ; while their example and good 



IN TROD UCTION. 



works stand out beyond all comparison, and 
beyond any possible competition by the 
present race of Lilliputians, stigmatized com- 
petition-wallahs — (those selected by compet- 
itive examination), who compose the Anglo- 
India rule of to-day; at the same time I 
have no doubt that if similar desperate 
emergencies should arise British valor and 
splendid capabilities would not be found 
wanting. 

Those were times too when men were 
trusted to do their best by the far off country 
they represented, and to the country to which 
they were accredited and governed ; inasmuch 
as they, being on the spot, were naturally, and 
wisely supposed to act according to the needs 
of the hour and the sudden requirements of 
their peculiarly strange surroundings, instead 
of being dictated to and hampered from a 
distance of 8,000 miles, as in the case of the 
present officials; and that too by men in 
London who have never lived in India, — some 
not even having seen the country, — and who, 
in consequence, despite cablegrams and rapid 
steam communication, can never comprehend 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

.the situation, or realize the nice adjustments 
requisite for meeting and harmonizing so 
many conflicting elements as are crowded into 
their Eastern Empire with its 300,000,000 
inhabitants of diverse creeds and languages, 
and kept in order by 60,000 British soldiers, 
assisted by twice that number of sepoys or 
native troops 

Nepal, the subject of these pages, the 
mountainous home of a recklessly brave and 
hardy race known as the Gurkhas, ranks as 
the most powerful and favored of India's fron- 
tier tribes. 

Outside of a small, select British official 
class, who have been posted there at different 
times by the India Government to watch after 
its interests, the number of other foreigners 
permitted to visit Nepal can be counted on 
one's fingers, and these during their short 
licensed sojourn in that territory are under 
constant espionage. No wonder, then, that 
Nepal is a terra incognita — an unknown as well 
as a mysterious land — to the outside world. 
Though nominally subservient to China, pay- 
ing its tribute quintennially to the Celestial 



IN TROD UCTION. 



Empire, it virtually recognizes the direct su- 
premacy of Great Britain, to which, power first 
and foremost, in the personnel of its foreign 
office, application must be made for any per- 
mission to enter this country's borders, declar- 
ing in detail the plan and object of the ap- 
plicant's projected trip, with all particulars 
concerning himself ; and, even then, his request 
is likely to be denied. 

Hence the title of this little work — 

''On India's Frontier, 
OR Nepal, THE Gurkhas' Mysterious Land." 



ON INDIA'S FRONTIER; 

OR NEPAL, THE GURKHAS' MYSTERIOUS LAND. 



CHAPTER I. 

PREPARATIONS FOR THE START. 

" Travel has lost all romance " was a remark 
made by a Russian officer to the writer as we 
were ascending the Volga in a magnificent 
steamboat built after the most approved 
American model. This sentiment was reiter- 
ated afterwards in the United States by an 
American under very different circumstances, 
and again expressed by a British officer when 
steaming down the Red Sea, as a fellow pas- 
senger, on board one of the Peninsular and 
Oriental Company's boats bound for Bombay. 

Something of this idea is expressed by the 
orthodox Mahomedan and Hindoo, whose con- 
ception of romance, if any, is somewhat vague 
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ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 11 

all about the place, we will be presumptuous 
still, and state that Darjeeling- is a sanitarium, 
a city on the Himalaya Mountains, 7,000 feet 
above sea level, 375 miles due north of Cal- 
cutta, and brought within twenty-four hours of 
that city by direct railway communication. 

It is surrounded by tea gardens, whose pro- 
ducts have already outrivalled those of China, 
and is as great a resort as it is a boon to worn- 
out Calcuttaites and other people of India's 
plains. 

The climate is bracing, and the scenery 
grand, the most prominent feature of the 
landscape being Mt. Kinchenjunga, 43 miles 
distant in a straight line, across deep valleys 
and precipitous ranges, piercing the sky with 
its quadruple head, scarred with age and 
white with driven snow, 28,000 feet above sea 
level. It is the second highest point of land 
in the world. From Darjeeling one can look 
off and over into Nepal and upon the moun- 
tains of Bhootan, Sikkim and Thibet. 

The writer and his son, Harry, a lad of thir- 
teen, wished to visit Nepal, a country prob- 
ably unknown to most readers. It embraces 



12 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

a stretch of territory 500 miles long by 150 
wide, named after the defunct and venerated 
Hindoo Saint the ascetic Ne. 

It starts from the Terai (a low, fiat, heavily 
timbered land that skirts the base of the 
Himalayas, teeming with wild beasts, and as 
hot as it is malarious), extends upwards over 
the Himalayan ranges in front, and stretches 
onward till stopped by such hoary sentinels 
of the north as Mts. Everest, Yassa and 
Diwalgiri. Such is the situation of Nepal, 
embracing all the climates of the world, but 
averse to include in this embrace any foreigner 
like the European, against whom particularly 
it fosters a jealous antipathy. 

How then were we to enter Nepal \ It is 
true we could walk out of our Darjeeling 
house in a westerly direction along a moss- 
carpeted, tree-lined road, skirting precipices 
overlooking tea planters' cottages, and their 
tea gardens, and in four or five hours come 
upon certain white masonry pillars that mark 
the line between British and Nepalese terri- 
tory. Passing these we should be on Nepal- 
ese soil; but this is not what we meant by 
\isiting Nepal. 




KINCHENJUNGA — 28,156 FT. 
(Through Storm Clouds from Darjeeling.) 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 13 

We use the word Nepal here in the sense the 
native does. When he speaks of going to 
Nepal, or coming from there, he means Khat- 
mandu, the capital of the Gurkha dynasty, in 
Lat. 27° 42' N. and Long. 85° 36' E. ; fully 
26 days' march by slow difficult stages from 
Darjeeling. 

This route, however, was quite out of the 
question, as no European is permitted to enter 
from this direction. Aware of this we applied 
first to the British Resident for the requisite 
pass. This official is a sort of consular officer 
appointed by the British Government to rep- 
resent it at Khatmandu. He promptly replied, 
discouraging our coming, but offering to send 
a permit if we persisted in our wishes. We 
wrote again and got the necessary document 
both in the English and vernacular, giving us 
the desired permission, although the Resident 
again strongly discouraged our coming, repre- 
senting it to be a very difficult undertaking, 
and urging us to give up the adventurous 
project. This we did not feel inclined to do, 
even though the route detailed to us was 
in confirmation of the old adage that "the 
longest way around is the shortest way home." 



14 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 



CHAPTER II. 

FROM DARJEELING TO SEGOWLI. 

Accordingly, one sharp frosty morning, with 
Kinchenjunga reflecting the beams of a bril- 
liant sun, we took seats on board a miniature 
train on a two-foot gauge railway^a twelve- 
ton engine attached to a dozen trolleys or 
hand-cars — and after passing down gradients 
of I foot in 28, into loops, figure 8's, zigzags 
and curves (the sharpest being of 70 feet 
radius), over foaming torrents, and through 
moss-festooned forests, all along catching most 
magnificent panoramic glimpses, we had de- 
scended by evening some 7,000 feet in 48 
miles, and reached the dead level of the Gan- 
getic plain. 

Here we boarded something more like a 
railway train, and reached Calcutta b}' noon 
the following day. 

A simple reference to the map will show 




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ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 15 

that this was going right away from Nepal, 
but combining, as it did, railway facilities 
with the most feasible route over the Himalaya 
ranges, it was our best and quickest way. In 
Calcutta we laid in a stock of provisions put 
up in tin, such as biscuits, butter, jams and 
meats, and, under this last named head, the 
pressed corn beef of Chicago or St. Louis 
deserves to be recommended as par excellence, 
the best for a rough jungle life. Besides, we 
provided ourselves with a set of cooking 
utensils of light block-tin ware, and also a few 
dishes, and engaged a Nepalese servant for 
cooking and general usefulness, although it 
would have been difficult to find a man who 
would have better filled the bill for sloven- 
liness, shirking his work, and general in- 
efficiency. 

The last night of October found us well 
loaded down in a ticca-gharry — the wretched 
but useful public horse conveyance of Cal- 
cutta. We drove through the city down to 
the river Hugli* and across the much-used 

* The lower portion of the river Ganges and its main outlet into the Bay of 
Bengal is called the Hugli, often spelled Hoogly. 



16 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

floating bridge, the only one this proud me- 
tropolis can boast of at present, over this 
sacred branch of the Ganges. On the other 
side was the Howrah Railway Station, a very 
poor building that serves as the terminus of 
such an important artery as the East India 
Railway, owned and operated by the Govern- 
ment of India. 

The usual buying of tickets, weighing and 
paying for luggage — an extortionate form of 
business — and getting it properly labelled, 
being safely concluded, during which red-tape 
process, the "booking-clerk," a West Indian 
of the color of midnight, had the satisfaction of 
informing me that he bore the same unusual 
name as mine, and therefore must be related 
to me. All this and the paying off of coolies 
having been successfully accomplished, with 
my son and servant I got comfortably 
arranged for the night, when the train started 
punctually at nine o'clock, averaging a speed 
of thirty miles an hour including stoppages. 

At seven o'clock the next morning we 
steamed into the station of Mokameh, some 
300 miles from Calcutta, and changed from 







^^j^L.R.'i^ 






ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 17 

the standard broad-gauge railway to the 
narrower one of the Tirhoot State Railway; 
though, as a preliminary, we had to cross the 
Ganges, by a well appointed steam ferry — 
rather an awkward operation if undertaken in 
a dark, rainy night when the precipitous char- 
acter of the muddy bank is taken into account. 

All day we travelled at the modest speed of 
13 miles an hour, due north, through a most 
fertile, well-populated country, fiat as a billiard 
table, and through a district which has long 
been noted for its indigo plantations, owned 
and managed by some of England's best 
blood ; sons of gentlemen and retired officials 
about whom it can certainly be said from our 
own experience, that their hospitality is most 
generously dispensed to any white man travel- 
ling in their midst. 

At 6 P. M. weary and travel-stained we 
arrived at the little station of Segowli, sit- 
uated in the territory of the Maharaja of 
Bettiah. Here we were bundled out hastily 
bag and baggage upon the platform, the train 
being behind time and only a minute allowed 
for stopping. 



20 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

and in the evening sent it ahead by our 
Nepalese servant. 

For ourselves we planned to hire two 
ponies, as we had brought saddles, but no 
ponies were to be had. Then we thought 
of walking rather than be delayed another 
day. However, at the last moment, an ekka 
was procured for us, the driver of which 
bound himself by agreement (and confirmed 
the same according to native custom by 
taking an advance of two rupees) to carry 
us to Bechiakoh, forty miles distant, where 
the road-way terminates. 

I must explain to some of my readers that 
an ekka is a small two-wheeled, springless 
conveyance with a sort of bell-shaped top 
to screen its occupants from the sun, drawn 
by a single pony, fastened within a pair of 
bow-shaped shafts, resting on a high padded 
wood saddle bound on his back, the whole rig 
being dubbed by many a " Jingling Johnny." 

The vehicle can accomodate fairly one 
passenger, besides the driver who straddles 
the shafts, seated a-la-Turk, with a few bits 
of baggage stowed away in a sort of cage 
or netting about the axle. 



22 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

Our progress at first was very slow and 
painful, as it was still dark and the road very 
rough, cut into deep ruts and pitfalls, that 
were regular bone breakers — the results of 
the now closing monsoon — while a heavy fog 
enveloped everything, rendering the night air 
chilly and penetrating. 

With the dawning of the day we got along 
better, and by 8 o'clock had made about 
twelve miles. Here at the little village of 
Rugganathpore we procured some rich buf- 
faloes' milk, and with the help of a tin of 
biscuits luade out a very fair " chota-hazri," 
or the simple early morning repast of " tea and 
toast " common in the east. 

We caught up with our bullock cart and 
servant at this place, though they had the 
start of one night before us. Such slow prog- 
ress was not much to their credit, and we 
accused them of having halted during the 
night somewhere. This of course they denied. 
As our pony had shown signs of giving out, I 
told the driver that he must not take him 
on any lurther, but miist get another in his 
place. 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 23 

At first he refused to comply, but I insisted 
and finally lie made a change by getting 
another pony from an acquaintance in the 
village. I had some reason to be sorry for 
having interfered at all in the matter, for the 
new brute turned out to be a wretched affair, 
and would in any museum have required a 
label to denote his species. 

We made this a pretext for asking the 
driver to run beside the ekka and not sit in it. 
This gave us more room, and lightened our 
load by half, for the man was a large heavily 
built fellow, weighing as much as both of 
us together. 



24 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 



CHAPTER IV. 

DESERTED BY HORSEMAN AND CARTDRIVER. 

With the driver running alongside for some 
six miles we reached Ruksoul, the end of 
British territory and beginning of Nepal — the 
boundary line being a small treacherous look- 
ing stream with precipitous muddy banks and 
bad crossing. We found it readily fordable, 
but in the monsoon it must prove dangerous 
to travellers, if not positively impassable — a 
place above all others for a bridge, which need 
not be an expensive affair either, judging 
from the logs lying about, brought from 
the neighboring forests of the Terai, that so- 
called extensive wooded belt of land already 
alluded to as skirting the base of the Himalaya 
mountains. 

All along the way thus far we had been 
straining our eyes to catch a glimpse of 
the famous towering ranges of Nepal often 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 25 

plainly seen from Segowli, but there was 
nothing now visible save one monotonous 
stretch of dead level land, covered with newly 
sown crops of rice, wheat and pulse. Still we 
knew that the mountains were near, and that 
we could have seen them but for the murky 
atmosphere. 

The noonday sun began now to beat down 
fiercely, causing intense radiation and dis- 
torting objects all along the line of vision, 
while the heat itself was almost prostrating. 
Suddenly our bad road grew worse and soon 
became no road at all. 

This gave a pretext to the driver to declare 
that both he and his pony were thoroughly 
exhausted, and that to go on was out of the 
question. Of course we would not allow for 
a moment any such complete giving out, par- 
ticularly as we had ourselves taken to our legs 
with the determination of doing our utmost 
to reach Persowny for the night. I must 
confess that it did seem as though we should 
never reach this town, as we trudged on past 
fields, mango groves, and villages, although it 
is reckoned only twenty-six miles from our 
early morning starting point of Segowli. 



26 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

At length by 3 o'clock in the afternoon, we 
were rewarded by the sight of the mud walls 
and houses of the town which proved to be a 
good-sized place, and was holding at the time 
one of those large, well attended weekly 
bazars so common in India. 

After much questioning, searching and a 
trial of patience, we secured shelter in the 
large garden of a Guruji (Hindoo Priest), 
under cover of a thatched roof open on all 
four sides. 

At first we were beset by a very inquisitive 
crowd, but with management we got rid of 
them without hurting anybody's feelings, and 
I must say that we secured every attention 
from the persons in charge of the garden, 
one of whom was a Brahmin who thought he 
spoke good English, and offered his services 
as guide for our journey, which services, how- 
ever, we respectfully declined. He got us a 
" healthy chicken," his way of describing one 
in good condition, and some " wealthy milk!" 

A couple of hours after our arrival our cart 
came along, and we were glad to get out our 
things so as to make ourselves comfortable, 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 27 



and set our man to cooking a breakfast, din- 
ner and supper all in one. 

The ekkawalla — -our driver — now presented 
himself and declared he would not go on any 
further, and asked to be paid off. We re- 
minded him of his agreement and asked how 
he supposed we were going to manage if he 
left. This did not concern him, but return he 
must, as the road was simply impassable, 
endangering his ekka and pony, with a lot of 
more nonsense to the same effect. Then too 
he wanted more money which was really the 
secret of his aversion to proceeding. 

I had, however, already over-paid him and 
positively declined to let him have any more, 
or give my consent to his returning. He then 
assumed an impertinent tone and began talk- 
ing insolently, threatening to leave an3rway. 
He also got hold of the cart man and incited 
him to demanding his discharge and the less 
notice we took of him or his threats, the more 
boisterous and offensive he became, thinking 
that now, as we were hard pressed, he could 
force us to submit to all of his extortionate 
demands. 



28 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

For a native I am bound to say he was an 
exceptionably " bad lot," just the kind that 
now-a-days hang- about the centres of Euro- 
pean travel, where alone they seem to thrive, 
fattening on the white man's weaknesses ; 
encouraged if not actually protected in their 
nefarious practices all over British territory 
by a larg-e class of magistrates and the laws 
in which they are steeped, although I am 
more disposed to find fault with the latter than 
the former. 

What the man really deserved was a good 
horse-whipping (it would have converted him 
as no court proceeding could) and had he still 
persisted, our feeling of silent contempt for 
the wretch might have given place to some 
decisive and more effective action. However, 
just at this moment our servant announced 
that the soup, nice chicken curry, etc., were 
ready ; and being famished, no distraction or 
insolence, not even the gaping inquisitiveness 
of a few uninvited onlookers could keep us 
from first satisfying the demands of hunger. 

This proved a good opportunity for the 
ekka driver and cartman to slip away quietly 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 29 

with all their belongings, leaving us to make 
shift as best we could. Such a predicament 
was hardly a desirable situation, but after all 
it was hardly unexpected, for one who would 
travel in India successfully must not be sur- 
prised at, or unprepared for, the worst 
exhibitions of human character and cunning. 
Having already had many years of this 
edifying process of schooling, we accepted our 
situation as a matter of course and laid our- 
selves down to undisturbed sleep, the last 
thing I was conscious of being the gradual 
fading away of the brilliant constellations, 
Orion and the Great Bear, as their twinkling 
rays struggled through our drowsy eyelids 
and invited us to sounder slumber, all the 
while caring naught for pariah dogs that 
snapped and snarled over the fragments of 
our supper almost within reach of my feet, 
nor for jackal scavengers that screeched and 
hooted at their lagging companions in the 
adjoining hedges. 



30 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE TERM FOREST. 

The morning- sun well up above the horizon 
was the first to rouse us, shining full in our 
faces, and bidding us be up and off. But 
how were we to go without even a cart to 
carry our luggage ? The town was at once 
ransacked for some sort of conveyance, and 
by offering prepayment of the entire sum 
asked, not a wise course to adopt ordinarily, 
but now absolutely necessary, especially as 
the price asked was not exorbitant, we secured 
a bullock cart for our effects. 

While this was beinof loaded the favorable 
report got about of our being good payers. 
At once two ponies were brought for us to 
ride. We hardly expected this, having made 
up our minds that we were to walk the rest of 
the way, a course much to be preferred to 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 31 

riding the wretched animals one usually finds 
for hire on such an out-of-the-way journey. 

The weather, however, was abnormally warm 
for the season of the year, making any special 
physical effort more of a task than a pleasure ; 
so we were not loath to put on the saddles, 
mount the fragile creatures and accompany 
the cart. 

There was no danger of our getting ahead 
(we tried and failed) for these four-footed 
specimens did not know any gait beyond a 
walk. But we found one thing to console us 
in our slow progress ; as soon as we got clear 
of the outskirts of Persowny and its surround- 
ing clumps of bamboo, tamarind and mango 
trees, a magnificent stretch of forest-covered 
mountains burst upon our sight. 

The scene was charming and a great relief 
to the monotonous, flat, highly cultivated plain 
we had been traversing almost the whole 
way from Calcutta, and which within a dis- 
tance of eight miles as we looked ahead, 
seemed to be brought to a very abrupt ter- 
mination in a dark, deep, well-defined border 
running east and west, extending beyond all 



32 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

possible range of sight, apparently thrown 
around this monstrous growth of a plain to 
stop its repacious greed. 

This border consisted of a wild, malarious 
uninhabited jungle called the Terai forest 
proper, some ten miles wide, opposite the 
point where we were to enter it, and extending 
over a thousand miles, right across the whole 
of upper India, and as if such a belt should 
not prove a sufficient barrier to check the en- 
croachment of the plain, there arose on the 
outer side of the belt, quite as abruptly as the 
latter did out of the plain itself, range upon 
range and tier after tier of the most stupen- 
dous chain of mountains, each overtopping 
the other, till they ended in the eternal snows 
and the everlasting blue of heaven. 

Wrapt in admiration of this enchanting 
prospect we gave no further thought to our 
slow progress, or to the snail's pace at which 
our wretched ponies crept along with us. 

By one o'clock, under a blistering sun, we 
reached the Powah or Rest-house, something 
like a Persian Caravansery, of the dirty little 
village of Semrabassa, where we put up in 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 33 

the open veranda, it being the cleanest 
place. 

We had traveled only ten miles since morn- 
ing- and would have liked to have had a much 
greater advance to show for our day's march. 
We had come right up to the edge of the 
Terai forest, which like a dark, ill-omened bar- 
rier, sharply silhouetted against the mountain 
background, stretched directly across our 
pathway, and from one horizon to another. 
We were, however, strongly advised not to at- 
tempt penetrating its forbidding-looking gloom 
and its weird shadows that afternoon. 

So, with no alternative but to acquiesce in our 
situation, we set about making ourselves as 
comfortable as possible, and had the benefit of 
watching our servant prepare our dinner — a 
very unwise thing to do, and which certainly 
did not tend to give us an increased relish for 
our food. 

By dark, dinner being over, we were ready 
to retire, but little sleep could we get, as the 
night was Dewali— corresponding to the 
DurgaPuja in Bengal — or the Hindoo Festival 
of Lights, with the worship and adulation of 



34 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

Mammon for its aim. and end, and dedicated 
to Lukshimi (the Goddess of wealth.) 

Groups of drunken, highly excited Nepalese 
formed here and there about us, and among 
the neighboring houses, shouting at the top 
of their voices, and gambling, a pastime we 
were told not allowed even in Nepal terri- 
tory, except during the festival of Dewali. 

At times it seemed as though we had fallen 
into a crowd of madmen, whose uproar was 
greatly aggravated by the unusual excitement 
of the village dogs as they barked and howled 
at their drunken masters. 

Long before dawn the next morning we 
were only too glad to get away. We plunged 
at once into the heavy jungle, which at that 
dark, early hour presented a very uninviting 
appearance, with the branches wet and drip- 
ping in consequence of the heavy mist, and 
the invisible depths harboring, as is well 
known, every denizen of the forest from the 
ponderous elephant and treacherous tiger to 
the poisonous snake and venomous scorpion. 

By sun-rise we had made five miles and 
passed the Adhabhar, or half-way house, a 



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ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 35 

solitary wooden and masonry structure built 
to shelter travellers. 

Alongside were one or two thatched huts 
with a ruined stone tank close by The road 
for most of the way lay along the rough, 
rocky, dry bed of a monsoon stream, and was 
so straight in some places that one could look 
ahead for a mile or more, the tall trees on 
either side making a perfect avenue, as though 
cut out and trimmed to form the entrance into 
an immense park, while in the distant per- 
spective their branches and trunks apparently 
came together and closed up the road. 

These trees, straight as an arrow and shoot- 
ing up 60 to 100 feet, are largely "sal" {Shorea 
robusta), a most enduring, substantial wood, 
superior to the famous Burmah teak for most 
building purposes. By reason of their great 
value they form the source of a very large in- 
come to the Nepal Government. 



36 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 



CHAPTER VI. 

WE ENTER THE HIMALAYAS. 

By 9 o'clock we came to an abrupt termina- 
tion of the immense forest belt of the Terai, 
and to an equally sudden termination of the 
dead level of the plain; for the hills and their 
rising spurs began to show above the forest 
tops just as we had ascended the first little 
rise in the ground. 

Immediately in front of us was the small 
village of Bechakho with a very large, well- 
built Powah on a high bank overlooking the 
wide pebbly bed of what must be in the rainy 
season a considerable river, but which at that 
time contained only a narrow stream of water 
as clear as crystal. 

The whole aspect of the country was now 
changed as if by magic. Mountains towered 
before us, steep conical hills clothed in pines 
{Pinus Kasya) were all about us. The wretched 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 37 



cart track, too, had come to an end, and our 
cartman and the owner of the two ponies were 
dismissed with buksheesh. We now looked 
about for coolies. The few insignificant huts 
that composed the village did not give much 
promise of help. 

It is at such times that we have wondered 
what the boastful Anglo-Indian official would 
do to extricate himself, propped up as he now 
is by every conceivable help, and backed by 
the strong arm of a powerful Government, 
which goes before him a protecting cloud by 
day and a providing pillar of fire by night. 
Whole towns and States are made to dance 
attendance upon him and his minutest wants 
are anticipated. What wonder then that he 
can travel, and yet he often makes most 
wretched work of it. It is stated that the 
British boundary commission which had been 
arranging the lines of demarcation with the 
Russians to limit their further encroachment 
upon Afghanistan and to prevent their nearer 
approach to India was supplied with such 
an extravagant amount of provisions, in- 
cluding champagne and other wines, to- 



38 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

gether with such a lavish camp outfit and 
attendants as in any other nation would 
have been sufficient in outlay to maintain 
a good- sized army on the war path during the 
same period of time. Some estimate may be 
made of the " get-up " of this Commission 
when it is known that its chief, Sir Peter 
Lumsden, drew a monthly allowance of 41,000 
rupees, (about ^^3,000 or $15,000!) The army 
impedimenta — a result of the excessive outlay 
of this expedition — caused great delay and 
difficulty in transport. 

But to return to Bechakho — we resigned 
oursevles as composedly as possible to our situ- 
ation, and succeeded in getting some milk, 
eggs and fowls from the village. After finish- 
ing a late breakfast, we strolled about and got 
into conversation with a buffalo herdsman, the 
owner of a large drove of milch buffaloes, who 
seemed to be in very good circumstances. 

We asked him what he did with so much 
milk in the jungle, so far away from any large 
market. He replied that his people boiled the 
milk and made ghee or native butter, which 
they accumulated until there was enough to 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 39 

make it worth their while for one or more of 
his men to trudge a long distance to the most 
promising market. He complained, however, 
that there was great anxiety, exposure and 
risk in his business from the number of wild 
beasts prowling about, and he informed us that 
only a few days previous a tiger had killed a 
fine buffalo calf in one direction and a valuable 
buffalo cow in another, all within a mile of the 
place where we were. He wished we would 
go after these tigers, he would go along and 
help us ; at the same time he remarked that 
there was no use in trying to hunt such sneaks 
without elephants, the grass in the jungles 
being eight and ten feet high, rendering all 
shooting impossible if not absolutely danger- 
ous. 

After wandering about for some time, we 
came upon an active, officious looking little 
fellow, who said he belonged to the set of post 
carriers, or "dak runners" as they are called, 
who are stationed every six miles all the way 
to Khatmandu for the purpose of carrying the 
daily mail-bag from Segowli, on the arrival 
there of the train. These runners do the 



40 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 



distance of 96 miles in fair weather in a 
little over twenty-six hours, each runner 
going at a dog trot over his beat of six 
miles and then delivering the letter bag to- 
gether with a little tin box (which we after- 
wards learned contained the Resident's bread) 
to the next runner. This lithe, active indi- 
vidual, with the hope of reward, at once 
interested himself in our behalf, and to our 
great surprise, within an hour or two, had 
a motley collection of men, women and chil- 
dren gathered in front of us, among whom 
our bags, bedding and bundles were properly 
distributed, when we again took up the line 
of march as though nothing had happened 
and plunged into a most picturesque wild 
gorge full of chattering monkeys and green 
pigeons. 

Our swarthy little champion, not liking the 
idea of our walking, had procured two miser- 
able apologies of ponies, which we were per- 
suaded to try to ride, but we fotmd walking 
easier and dismissed the scarecrows ; and 
salaming our estimable helper in a way he 
appreciated as fully as we had esteemed his 




COOLIE GIRLS AND THEIR BASKETS. 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 41 

services, we hastened on after our motley 
caravan. The walking was most tedious and 
difficult as we picked our way past boulders, 
over rocks and through yielding, rough sand ; 
and unless we constantly noted every foot- 
step, which obliged us to give up gazing on 
the beauty of the scenery on every hand, we 
were sure to stub our toes or take a header 
into some uncompromising fact in front of us. 

For the first few miles we had to thread our 
way up along the dry portion of the bed of the 
stream already referred to as passing by Be- 
chakho, whose water made such a noise rush- 
ing over the stones and reverberating among 
the towering cliffs, that it drowned all sounds 
in its deafening uproar and made talking too 
laborious, if not quite impossible. 

As evening began to approach, the sun 
tints on the mountain tops and the deepen- 
ing shadows below completely exhausted all 
powers of admiration. 

We passed a large caravan of bullocks 
laden, some with betel nuts, others with 
sheets of copper, and others still with bales 
of cloth, their owners having stopped to pre- 



42 ON INDIA'S FRONTIER. 

pare their encampment for the night beside 
a group of pine trees, as they dared not pro- 
ceed further for fear of darkness setting in. 
They advised us also to halt but we wished 
to make all the progress possible and so 
pushed on ; in fact while talking with the 
bullock drivers our servant and some of the 
coolies had already passed us, so we hastened 
our steps hoping to overtake them. 

Of course we met no one, nor were there any 
settlements along our route, so we marched 
on in silence until darkness settled down 
upon us in earnest. Walking now took more 
the form of groping, and the repeated stumb. 
lings, bumps and raps we got made our grad- 
ual progress upwards very slow and difficult. 

Just as we began to wonder what had be- 
come of our servant and the coolies who had 
preceded us, we espied a light ahead, and on 
coming up to it through the gloom, found it 
to be a fire built by our servant, who, with the 
coolies had become quite alarmed in the dark- 
ness and dared not go any further ; so they 
stopped on the path where they had become 
benighted, made a fire and huddled about it, 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 43 

determined to pass the night just where they 
were. There was no use in complaining tliat 
we could not put up in such an unlikely feverish 
spot without the least shelter, with the night 
wind howling through the gorge as if moan- 
ing for the lost, playing a requiem of its own 
on the overhanging pines, set to the tune that 
is sung by the surges of a distant ocean on a 
storm beaten coast. The foaming torrent too, 
whose rocky bed we were ascending, chimed in 
with notes in keeping with its hoarse voice, 
so that picture our situation as best one might, 
it was decidedly an awkward one. We ex- 
postulated with our servant but he declared 
with feelings akin to fear that there was 
no alternative, as the nearest place with any 
shelter was the village of Hetowda ten miles 
distant, and that it was quite impossible to 
reach that in the darkness. 

While he said this, crouched up beside the 
fire, he turned and took a nervous look at the 
surrounding forest, muttered something about 
his "Kismet" or fate that had brouofht him 
into such a fix, and warned us in an undertone 
not even to suggest making a further move, 



44 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

assuring us that this would at once occasion 
a general stampede back, among our dozen 
coolies, whose staring eyes and ivory teeth 
were the only distinguishable objects about 
as they glistened in the reflected fire-light, 
forming a weird contrast to their swarthy ill 
clad bodies a subject worthy of the pencil of a 
Dore. 

Seeing there was no way but to submit to 
our enforced situation, we ordered our bags 
to be unstrapped, our beds to be unfolded, 
built one or two more fires, got our water to 
boil, drank our tea without milk and ate our 
supper with thankfulness, and in the spirit 
of contentment laid ourselves down on our 
cots (our coolies were already snoring away, 
sprawled out upon the ground) being far too 
tired to be bothered with any unpleasant 
reflections suggested by our exposed situ- 
ation. 

We soon passed into the land of rest and 
fairy dreams, the last sensation of consciousness 
that I can recall being the sound of Harr3^'s 
voice (I had supposed him to be already 
asleep) saying with a yawn, as he wrapped 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 45 

his warm covering closer about him, " Do 
you ever think when putting up at any of 
our fine New York or London hotels, with gas 
and electric lights turned on, of such first- 
class accommodation as this ? " 



46 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 



CHAPTER VII. 

A STARTLING EXPERIENCE. 

We were up the next morning by dawn that 
revealed our " first-class accommodation " to 
be of the wildest description conceivable. 
What most concerned us, however, was to 
find ourselves none the worse for the night's 
bivouac. 

We started but had hardly gone fifty yards 
when a most extraordinary spectacle greeted 
our eyes as well as our sense of smell. There 
lay before us, blocking up the pathw^ay, the 
carcass of an immense elephant, his legs 
sticking up in the air like the tall stumps 
on freshly cleared land, while his body and 
trunk lay stiffened and mortifying, the only 
mourner being a large carrion vulture (G3^ps 
Bengalensis) so well known in India for spy- 
ing a dainty funeral miles and miles away. 
There he sat on a tall commanding pine, the 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 47 

personification of hypochondria, evidently 
ruminating on the uncertainty of life, and 
how the mighty had fallen. 

We did not disturb him in his meditations 
but left him to the diversion of his gloomy 
thoughts. 

The elephant had evidently been dead only 
a few hours, for his skin was quite intact, but 
decomposition had already made progress, as 
was evident from the sound of the seething 
gases escaping from his huge body just as if 
the carcass were being roasted over a fire, and 
also from the offensive odor, which luckily for 
us had been wafted by the wind away from 
our encampment during the night ; otherwise 
we should have been driven from the spot, 
bag and baggage, most unceremoniously by a 
foe of which none of us, with the most lively 
imagination, had the faintest conception. I am 
positive had a live elephant come crushing 
down upon us through the forest, not one of 
us would have thought it at all strange ; in- 
deed the coolies with bated breath had spoken 
of such an occurrence as not unlikely, but to 
encounter and be overpowered by a dead ele- 
phant was the height of absurdity. 



48 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

We laughed, held our noses, and with great 
difficulty made a detour over the rocks and 
boulders around the carcass and proceeded on 
our march. 

A little more than a mile brought us to 
Chirriaghata, a low sandstone range over 
which the path is carried by a deep, narrow 
fissure in the sandy soil, thereby reducing the 
climb. At the top, in an excavation made in 
the side of the fissure, we came upon a Hin- 
doo deity with a brazen face and front, beside 
which was the ever-present Mahadeo's phallic 
linga (the Hindoo's Creator) all bedecked with 
tinsel and flowers, and strewn with rice and 
copper coins, the votive offerings of the sin- 
laden as they filter through this first Nepalese 
pass. 

This mountain shrine was attended by a 
bright Newar boy not over fourteen, who told 
us in reply to our many inquiries, that he had 
been there all alone two years ; that his home 
was miles away beyond certain lofty ranges, 
but that a family in a hut just at the foot of 
the pass we had ascended took care of him, 
and that he had nothine to fear as he was en- 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 49 



gaged in the meritorious duty of custodian to 
the Gods, an instance of faith that would 
cause a good many examples of modern 
Christianity to suffer by comparison. 

The ascending path by which we had come 
now. descended as abruptly on the other side 
into the dry rocky channel of a mountain tor- 
rent that wended its way in the opposite di- 
rection from the one we had just come. After 
a mile of very rough walking, we came upon 
what appeared to be a faint attempt at a 
good, wide-made road free from stones, lead- 
ing at a gently inclined gradient, through a 
beautiful forest of very uniformly developed 
young, slender, tapering sal trees. 

After some three miles of this rather pleas- 
ant walk we came to the full flowing, yet 
narrow stream of Kurru, crossed by an old, 
but well-made, sal log bridge. 

We began now to pass numbers of coolies, 
attended by sepoy guards of the British 
Government, carrying all sorts of camp articles, 
such as tents, folding tables, chairs, carpets 
and everything requisite to make one com- 
fortable. There must have been a little army 



50 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

of coolies, a number of whom having been 
pressed into service against their will, took 
every opportunity to get behind a bush or 
tree, dodge the guards, drop their burdens and 
bolt into the jungles. 

In various secluded spots we came upon a 
deserted bed and chair here, an abandoned 
washstand or basin there, and so on ; strange 
things to find in the wilds of the jungle. All 
this turn out, we presently learned, belonged 
to the British Resident, or English consular 
officer deputed by his Government to watch 
British interests at the Court of Nepal. 

This officer was on his way to Segowli to 
attend to certain boundary questions ; we 
were told that we shoiild meet him at our 
next halting ground, which place was the 
village of Hetowda, about two miles beyond 
Kurru log bridge, where we arrived by nine 
o'clock that morning, and found the largest 
and best kept Powah of any on the road. 

Then, too, the village was a very good sized 
one for the jungle, but like a number of other 
inhabited places along our route, it was only 
a winter settlement, for from the first of May 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 51 

to the end of October the place is abandoned 
to the deadly orgies of the Terai fever, to the 
loathsome leech and the filthy rhinoceros. 
Even the Nepalese Custom House located 
here, and which during the winter months 
collects quite an amount of duty on merchan- 
dise passing through, closes its doors in sum- 
mer and retires further into the interior. 

Here too nearly all the caravans of bullocks, 
ponies and donkeys coming from India turn 
and go back, leaving their burdens to be car- 
ried further on by coolies, owing to the diffi- 
culties of the road. 

The Powah of Hetowda, we found to be 
a commodious, well-constructed two-storied 
building in the form of a square surrounding 
an open court, the prevailing caravansery style 
so common in the East, We found quite a 
number of such buildings at various intervals 
all along our route, and whether built by the 
Nepalese Government or by private enter- 
prise, their construction is deemed most meri- 
torious. They certainly are a great boon to 
travellers. 

In front of the Hetowda Powah were num- 



52 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

bers of people, coolies, servants, sepoys, et hoc 
omne genus, all busily engaged in making pre- 
parations for the early anticipated arrival of 
the Resident. 

The thought occurred to us then, as it had 
on many previous occasions, that travelling 
must be made easy to officials with so many 
to prepare the way and get all things ready 
beforehand. 

Our own servant, coolies and effects had not 
yet come up, and while hesitating about try- 
ing to get shelter at some place other than 
the Powah, for fear of taking up room to 
which the Resident we felt should have first 
claim, certain of the servants came up and 
politely conducted us to a pleasant upstairs 
room, saying there was abundant accommoda- 
tion, and their sahib would by no means re- 
quire all. 

Our coolies now arrived bringing our things, 
and we were soon comfortably settled. 

By noon the Resident came, borne by 
coolies, seated in a jampan, or sort of sedan 
chair with a straight handle before and be- 
hind, that rested on their shoulders. 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 53 

Later in the day I called on him and found 
him very pleasant and affable. He thought 
it rather bold and venturesome in us to under- 
take in a private capacity such a difficult trip, 
declaring that he found it hard enough, al- 
though an officer and commanding every pos- 
sible help ; at the same time he confessed that 
we seemed to get over the ground much more 
easily than he did, for he had no end of trouble 
with his coolies, who kept running away and 
throwing down their loads at every turn in 
the road, causing him great inconvenience 
and delay. He inquired whether any one had 
tried to stop us since entering Nepal territory, 
and when we told him no, he mentioned a place, 
Cisagurdi, about eighteen miles ahead, where 
a strong guard of Nepalese soldiers, stationed 
in a steep pass, questioned every one going 
by, and were disposed to stop any foreigner, 
especially Europeans not having strong offi- 
cial permits from Khatmandu. He did not 
think, however, that we would be interfered 
with as I was already provided with his offi- 
cial perwana or passport, and to make it sure 
he promised to send orders by a returning 



54 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

messenger that we must not be stopped, or 
our progress questioned. Just before parting 
the Resident laughingly remarked that one of 
the greatest desires of his life was to see 
America. I expressed the hope that he would 
do so, as he would see something on a great 
scale. " Yes," he laughingly continued, " but 
then I should not feel easy, for you know 
everybody carries a revolver over there and 
doesn't hesitate to use it ! " 




THE LATE SIR JUNG BAHADUR AND WIFE, 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 55 



CHAPTER VIII. 

A BEAUTIFUL ROAD: CHANGING COOLIES. 

Early the next morning having dismissed 
our coolies and taken a fresh set (the Resident 
taking the opposite direction) we were off. 
Our march that day was the pleasantest of the 
whole journey, being along the bank of the 
foaming Rapti, and over a level well-made 
road, in many places cut out of the solid rock, 
the work of the great Sir Jung Bahadur, Nepal's 
late prime minister; and but for some bad 
breaks here and there made by the monsoon, 
it was good enough for a four-in-hand to be 
driven at full speed for a distance of over ten 
miles. 

The first two miles brought us to a large 
tributary of the Rapti, over which was a 
long log bridge resting on eight or ten log 
piers, built like log cabins and filled with sand 
and stone. This bridge was now unfortu- 



56 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

nately useless, having had one of the centre 
piers carried away during the last rains, 
making a great gap in the roadway, so that a 
diversion had to be constructed through the 
rough bed of the river, which it is to be hoped 
is only temporary pending the early repair of 
such a good bridge. 

Six miles beyond, after passing through a 
fine bit of Himalayan scenery, we came to 
another and smaller bridge and to the village 
of Bheisardwar, in a very narrow part of the 
valley, with mountains running up into the 
clouds on both sides and covered with rank 
forests. Here our coolies put down their loads 
saying they would go no further, but easily 
finding another set, we paid them off and let 
them. go. 

In another two miles we reached the large 
Powah of Nowarta with its few huts scattered 
about making up the village. Here we 
grudgingly made a long wearisome halt, as our 
new batch of men declared they had come 
their regular beat, and having done all that 
could be legally required of them, they laid 
down their burdens and quietly departed 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 57 



without even stopping for their money Such 
leave taking was rather abrupt, but was ex- 
plained by the fact of its being the last and 
great day of Dewali, when, as at our Christ- 
mas, everybody was supposed to be merry- 
making. At any rate everyone we met seemed 
to be either drunk, or intoxicated with the ex- 
citement of gambling, and was rigidly averse 
to work of any kind, a spirit which had 
affected our coolies as well. 

Then too the rule which holds throughout 
the East that each town must furnish coolies 
to the traveller (he can claim as many as he 
brings) to the next town only and no further, 
should they object to going, obliged us to 
submit to the desertion of our men. We tried 
to get others, but the place seemed to be de- 
serted. 

After a couple of hours search we found 
two men, two women and a boy, who agreed 
to carry what they could to Bhimphedi, a 
town five miles ahead. They could, however, 
only carry about half of our effects, and though 
not knowing when we could procure more 
help, we started them off unattended. And 



58 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

be it said touching the proverbial honesty of 
these poor creatures, that we had. not the 
slighest fear of our luggage being tampered 
with although they carried money and valu- 
ables that were accessible in bags and bundles. 

We now renewed our efforts to get the rest 
of our things off, and in looking about we spied 
a group of men behind some bushes, gathered 
about a buffalo they had just butchered beside 
the Rapti, which they were cutting up for a 
feast that night. Going up we found the head 
man of the village there, and told him that he 
was bound to help us. He promised to do so, 
went off with the party about him and that 
was the last we saw of him. 

Finding ourselves thus nicely trapped, with 
half our goods already gone on, and the other 
half lying by the roadside, also noticing the 
shadows creeping up the valley along which 
our road lay, caused by the sun having already 
set behind a neighboring peak and rapidly 
sinking, we were warned of approaching 
night. 

There was now no alternative but to leave 
our servant in charge, enjoining upon him to 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 59 

come as quickly as he could get tlie coolies, 
while we ourselves hastened on to Bhimphedi. 
Disturbed as we were at the thought of our 
forlorn situation, both of us started up in a fit 
of desperation and, as we walked off, snatched 
up a few light articles to carry ourselves, such 
as a box of tinned biscuits, a lantern, a rifle, or 
a courier bag, and began to plod along. 

We soon gave up talking as the roar of the 
Rapti on our right grew louder and drowned 
our voices, so we proceeded in silence. Dark- 
ness too came on apace, while the night wind 
began to feel chilly, showing that we were ris- 
ing into a higher and cooler atmosphere. 

At this juncture I happened to cast my eyes 
beyond the noisy stream to where the forest 
coming down from an immense height touched 
the water's edge and saw through the gloom a 
dark object moving along slowly among the 
boulders and drifted logs. Being a hundred 
yards off, I could not readily distinguish, for 
want of more light, the nature of the object, 
when suddenly we noticed it mount a rock 
and give a furious plunge into the midst of 
the foaming torrent. 



60 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

We stopped, expecting to see it borne down 
by the rapidity of tbe current and dashed 
to pieces among the eddying whirlpools. 
Nothing of the kind ! To our amazement up 
rose the black thing — a large bear — from under 
the seething waters, then reached out both 
its fore paws and by an astonishing exhi- 
bition of strength clutched the bank a few 
feet below us. 

The situation was not without its dangers, 
because the Himalayan bear {iirsits labiatiis) 
has a sinister reputation of its own, which it 
must be confessed it tries very hard to justify. 
Still, although it was rather close quarters the 
Winchester which my son held made the con- 
test more even, and as I stretched out my hand 
for the rifle I watched the brute approach 
still nearer with some degree of equanimity. 
I had met many other members of the same 
family face to face before and could depend 
on my nerves and my aim. 

I had not taken my eyes off the bear and 
was still holding out my hand for the rifle 
when my son called out, in a horror-stricken 
voice, " we have left the cartridges behind." 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 6i 



Here was a situation! My cheeks burned, 
even as I faced the bear, at the unsportsman- 
like oversight. 

But there was no time for reflection, for 
Bruin was already on his hind legs and seek- 
ing closer quarters. What should I do \ Club 
him with the rifle ? a poor game to play with 
a bear and abandoned as soon as thought of. 

As I glanced hastily around for a weapon I 
caught sight of a large water-worn stone 
which appeared to promise some merits as a 
missile if I could only bring it to bear upon 
that thick skull in front of me. 

For a moment the bear stopped in his ad- 
vance as if it suddenly occurred to him as 
strange that we did not run away while we 
had the chance and that there might be some 
kind of trap for him somewhere. His hesi- 
tation, which did not last more than a couple 
of seconds, was sufficient for me to poise and 
launch, with desperate effort, the heavy stone 
which by great good fortune struck him full 
on the head just above the small vicious eyes 
which seemed to spring together in a horrid 
squint as the huge stone struck him. 



62 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

A piercing howl of pain, which rose high 
above the roar of the torrent, followed the 
blow, and for an instant the bear reeled half 
unconscious, clutched the air desperately with 
his paws and then fell on all fours. 

But the stupifying effect was only moment- 
ary. Like a flash he rose on his hind legs 
again and with a fury in his little vicious 
eyes which boded no good for me if he could 
only get hold of me. Still it would appear 
that the terrible blow had to some extent de- 
moralized him as well as shaken his courage. 
Possibly he reflected that there were more of 
the same kind in store for him. Anyhow 
there we were still in front of him and not 
running away as everything else did which he 
met excepting his good friends the Elephant 
and Rhinoceros. 

While one might count three he stood in a 
picturesque position of hesitating menace, 
fronting me with fury in his eyes, and then 
he suddenly turned and with a tremendous 
leap plunged once more into the foaming 
waters and was lost to sight. 

There was no doubt that we had had ofreat 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 63 

luck with our bear for the situation was one 
of considerable danger, unarmed as we were. 
Fortunately, we did not know our defenseless 
condition until we were, so to speak, in the 
thick of the fight and then action banished all 
thought of fear. 

There was nothing further to do but to walk 
along in a sadder and wiser frame of mind, 
taking a solemn vow never to leave cartridges 
behind and if we did, then invariably to leave 
the gun too — a lesson we had already sup- 
posed ourselves to have learned long, long 
ago, and yet the simple neglect of which 
under the present circumstances had cost us 
the loss of a beautiful bear's skin. 



64 ON INDIA 'S FBONTIER. 



CHAPTER IX. 

DELAYED AT BHIMPHEDI. 

Darkness intensified by the surrounding 
forests now overwhelmed us, and but for the 
cheerful rays of a little lantern we had taken 
the precaution to bring we should have had to 
get down under some trees and there sit the 
night out. 

On and on we walked along a road with 
many turnings but seemingly with no ending. 
Twice we crossed streams by means of step- 
ping-stones, and at length coming suddenly 
on some huts we earnestly hoped we had 
reached Bhimphedi, our intended camping 
place, to which the coolies who had preceded 
us were instructed to go. In this we were 
disappointed, being told that we had still two 
miles further to travel. 

So on we went, and presently passed through 
a thick clump of trees loaded with a species 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 65 

of wild fruit that was being resorted to by 
some large animals, presumably bears and 
pigs, for they scampered off in the darkness 
making a great noise, evidently not liking 
our lantern. 

The two miles still left for us to march, 
seemed to lengthen into double that distance 
before, weary and hungry, we reached the 
village of Bhimphedi at 9 p. m. Here we found 
our coolies and the things they had brought 
safely located in the small open veranda of 
the house of the Naik or chief police officer 
of the town, and here we concluded to pass 
the night, being too tired to seek other 
quarters. 

On examining the coolies' loads, we found 
that our bedding had been left behind with 
our servant and the rest of our belongings, 
though a basket of provisions and some 
dishes had come on ; by the help of which, 
together with good milk obtained for us in the 
village, we made out a comfortable supper. 

It was now nearly midnight, and yet no 
signs of our servant or the articles left in his 
charge. So throwing ourselves right on the 



66 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

floor of tlie veranda, with, our saddles for 
pillows, we tried to secure some sleep. 

For two reasons we did not rest well ; one 
was insuflicient covering' against the chilliness 
of the night air, and the other was a constant 
stream of singing beggars, the night being 
the last of Dewali (corresponding to our New 
Year's eve), when everybody seemed privileged 
to go to anybody's quarters and rouse him 
from his slumbers by giving him a New Year's 
serenade, during which every line of their 
lugubrious song was made to end with the 
refrain " Dou-cee-rae," "Dou-cee-rae," and in- 
terspersed with loud importunate demands 
for gifts. 

This kind of performance each strolling 
party repeated and kept up till something 
was granted them in the shape. of either grain, 
food, clothing or coppers. As this went on 
the whole night through, we were only too 
glad to bestir ourselves by early dawn and 
start up our circulation by w^alking briskly to 
and fro. 

W^e now anxiously waited for our servant 
and luggage. Up to noon nothing came, so 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 67 

procuring a pony in the town for Harry, he 
mounted and rode back to look up the servant. 

Meanwhile I availed myself of the opportu- 
nity to jot down some notes of our journev. 
The veranda we occupied commanded an in- 
teresting view of the village, the valley of the 
Rapti we had been ascending and a circular 
range of perpendicular cliffs of great height 
that abruptly ended this valley. 

Just below the veranda was a spring whose 
water ran out of a stone spout fashioned like 
a griffin, and fell in a continuous stream a few 
feet below on a linga, or one of the emblematic 
forms of Mahadeo (Siva). 

These animal-shaped water spouts are called 
Dhara. Their construction, like the building 
of Powahs, is regarded as an especially meri- 
torious act, entitling the founder to the richest 
blessings of heaven. 

Beside the griffin spout exposed to every 
change of weather sat a man, a " sadhu," 
almost nude, in the prime of life, and, though 
blind, endeavoring to follow the course of the 
sun from sunrise to sunset with his sightless 
eyeballs while mumbling over his beads of 



68 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

the rough rudraksJia or deep marked seeds of 
the Eleocarpus ganitriis. At night he would 
partake of the alms bestowed on him during 
the day by passers-by and lie down on a rough 
piece of gunny cloth or burlap just where he 
had been sitting, and fall asleep only to wake 
the next morning to repeat the same monot- 
onous devotions. Such had been his occupa- 
tion for the past five years, and such would it 
continue to be till released by death. 

Three hours had gone by and no sign of 
either Harry or the servant, so I thought of 
going to look them up myself, when I spied a 
curious looking object coming along the road, 
which soon proved to be our bundle of bed- 
ding on the back of our servant, who had 
turned himself into a coolie, the most credit- 
able act I ever saw him do, thereby covering 
a multitude of subsequent failures, any one 
of which might have merited his instant dis- 
missal. He had a gloomy story to relate of 
how he sat up all the cold night through, 
watching beside our things left on the road; 
how he had been frightened by wild beasts, 
how in the morning when renewing his efforts 




NEPALESE MOTHER CARRYING HER BABE. 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 69 

no coolies could be got for love or money, and 
how in sheer desperation picking up our bed- 
ding and getting an old man to watch in his 
place, he had come on like a common coolie 
himself. He passed my son about half-way, 
who told him to hasten on and he would fetch 
the remainder of what was left in some way. 

Another two hours passed, and then an- 
other weary one, seemingly as long as the 
first two. Still no one appeared coming over 
the silent road, and as it now begfan o-rowinof 
dark, I set out myself to walk back. I had 
hardly gone a mile, when whom should I 
come upon but my son Harry walking beside 
his pony, the latter carrying all that he could 
get strapped on him. There were still three 
coolies' loads remaining behind, but Harry 
had managed to find a man who had agreed 
for buksheesh to have all our thing's brought 
on that night, which he did two hours later. 

We had now lost a day, but we planned that 
the following marches should make up for it. 
That night we passed more comfortably than 
the previous one and were up before dawn, 
being waked by our coolies, whom I had 



70 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

already made sure of in the village, and who 
insisted on a very early start, as the march 
was to be a very hard one, right up over a 
pass 6,447 f^^t above sea level and over 4,000 
feet above our location. 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 71 



CHAPTER X. 
CLIMBING CISAGURDI. 

Our path up the Pass of Bhimphedi was a 
narrow zigzag and very stony, so that the 
ascent was laborious and slow, and, what ag- 
gravated matters was Harry's early develop- 
ing a burning fever, the immediate result of 
his efforts yesterday, and a remote cause be- 
ing malaria which he had contracted at our 
exposed camp near the dead elephant. He, 
however, bravely trudged on, though stopping 
with increasing frequency to catch breath and 
to rest. This gave us opportunity to admire 
at every ascending step the widening pros- 
pect, and feel the air rapidly growing cooler 
and more bracing. 

At a commanding point after an ascent 
of some 3,000 feet we looked down, and there 
almost in a line with our feet, nestled the 
village of Bhimphedi, consisting of a single 



72 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

street, lined on both sides by low tiled houses, 
the whole divided from the plain beyond by a 
wide stretch of sand and stone, the dry bed of 
the Rapti, said to contain a large stream of 
water which flowed a few feet under the surface 
and broke out a mile or so below, forming 
the boisterous torrent along which we had 
been marching. 

Bhimphedi marked an abrupt termination 
of the Rapti valley, as was apparent from the 
precipitous ranges we were climbing, and 
which formed above the village a complete 
ail-de-sac in which suddenly ended the level 
road already . referred to, made by Nepalese 
soldiers acting under orders from Sir Jung 
Bahadur twenty years ago. 

What the original intentions were of bring- 
ing a splendid level road up to the foot of an 
almost insurmountable pass, which could not 
be cleared save by climbing, is a mystery. 

Another steady pull up of about i ,000 feet 
(the coolies whistling a hoarse monotonous 
note every few steps from habit, when taking 
breath), brought us to a low, and somewhat 
dilapidated, stone wall, with bastions and a 



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ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 73 

gateway, (but no gate,) apparently hanging 
on for dear life to the faintest effort at a spur 
which nature in some wild freak had thrust 
out from the precipitous overhanging moun- 
tain sides. 

As we entered this forlorn enclosure by 
winding around through loopholed walls and 
debris, we took in the situation at once. To 
our left were a few huts which clung to this 
wild, contracted perch. These were chiefly 
the dwellings of the garrison stationed here 
by the Nepal Government to guard this diffi- 
cult pass, and were clustered about a tile- 
roofed bungalow, built for the accommodation 
of Nepalese chiefs and well-to-do travellers in 
their journeyings to and from Khatmandu. 
Here the British Resident himself had stopped 
the night before we met him at Hetowda, as 
already narrated. 

To our immediate right, and fringing the 
pathway by which we had entered, was an 
apparently bottomless valley, which made 
one's head turn in attempting to fathom it by 
craning the neck over its perpendicular walls 
of rock. Just ahead of us, and barring the 



74 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

exit from this garrisoned enclosure, against 
any further progress up the mountain, were 
five light poles running horizontally across 
into slotted posts on each side, exactly like 
pasture bars at home and rather poor ones at 
that. 

Here beside these bars paced a Gurkha 
sentry, the first military sign we had been 
treated to in military Nepal. He was armed 
with a loaded musket and clothed in a faded 
red English uniform, and his appearance 
created an impression that here our advance 
would be questioned before those bars would 
be let down for us to pass. 

I need hardly add that a better site could 
not have been chosen for guarding this high- 
way from India into Nepal. Imagine a 
precipitous chain of mountains, a slight pro- 
jection of a spur thrust out from the mountain 
side and forming a shelf just large enough to 
hold a small cluster of huts, a zigzag path 
running almost perpendicular in parts up 
the mountain, between dangerous precipices; 
imagine such a formidable spot and no alter- 
native but to pass over this spur guarded by 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 75 

a handful of dare-devils of Gurkhas, who 
could stop a whole invading army from 
advance, as even British troops can testify, 
and the reader will have some idea of our 
surroundings and the peculiar situation 
which confronted us on that bright crisp 
morning under a brilliant sun and over- 
topping snow-capped peaks. Such was our 
introduction to this forbidden land and to this 
travel forbidding people. 

Our arrival had caused a stir in the guard- 
house. Our coolies had been stopped by the 
sentry on duty and sat down to catch breath, 
with their burdens beside them. Harry lay 
groaning on the ground, resting his head on 
a stone, flushed deeply by the intensity of 
his fever, and with a pulse above a hundred. 

Just then the Havildar, or chief officer, in 
charge of the garrison, came out in undress 
uniform, and without the customary salam, 
accosted us abruptly. This was a breach of 
the commonest oriental courtesy, and did not 
augur well. He rudely asked where we were 
going. I replied, to Khatmandu. He wanted 
to know on whose authority. I told him I had 



76 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

a perwana or passport. He asked me to pro- 
duce it, saying he had had no intimation of 
our coming-. This I knew to be false, for word 
had been sent by the Resident, to my knowl- 
edge, from Hetowda, through returning mes- 
sengers, and I myself had forewarned the 
Havildar of our approach from Bhimphedi, 
at the bottom of the pass, while detained there 
for two days as already stated. 

I had no sooner handed the perwana to this 
officious chief than he tossed it aside, saying 
it was no good. I was somewhat annoyed and 
replied that he could not read (which was a 
fact) and requested that his Brahmin scribe 
or writer be summoned. He said it made no 
difference ; he did not recognize British au- 
thority ; that the perwana was not worth the 
paper it was written on, as he saw no seal of 
his government on it. 

I firmly insisted on the Brahmin's being 
called, and while one of the many sepoys that 
had now gathered around us went for the 
scribe, I took up the perwana and began to 
read myself aloud the Devnagiri character in 
which the passport was written. 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 77 

This somewhat astonished the Havildar 
and he muttered something about m.y being 
a strange sahib who talked and read the ver- 
nacular in common with the natives. 

As the Brahmin with his reed pen (the ver- 
itable calamus of the ancient Romans) and 
country-made paper and ink approached, I 
ordered him to make a copy of the perwana, 
somewhat to the surprise of his chief, that 
i should take it upon myself to give orders, 
thereby assuming the function of the superior 
officer in command. 

This, however, was nothing compared to 
what immediately followed. While the Brah- 
min was copying the perwana seated on the 
ground, with the thigh and knee of his right 
leg raised to support the paper, I gazed at 
the motley garrison, numbering at least fifty 
sepoys, all of whom were crowding around 
us, some in old and faded uniforms like the 
sentry at the bars, others hardly awake and 
with only a cloth thrown about their dusky 
forms. In their excitement they brandished 
their arms and, headed by their gruff chief, 
they formed a weird and menacing group in 
this strange eyrie. 



78 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

In front stood or rather squatted the timid 
coolies with our still more timid servant, while 
Harry lay beside my feet on the ground, mum- 
bling as though his brain was being affected. 
Knowing the rapid and possibly fatal conse- 
quences of the fever, this last sight decided 
matters for me. Seeing, moreover, no disposi- 
tion to yield on the part of the natives who 
had intercepted our progress and wishing to 
save time while the perwana was being copied, 
I suddenly arose from the rock which had 
formed my seat, made my way silently but 
with a determination that quickly cleared a 
path for me, took the bars down one by one 
and in a commanding tone ordered my ser- 
vant and the coolies to proceed at once up the 
pass. 

The coolies hesitated a moment, not know- 
ing whether to fear me or the garrison most. 
But a look at my desperate face seemed to help 
them to decide, and taking up their loads they 
started off quietly in Indian file, headed by my 
servant. 

A momentary silence fell upon the garrison 
as I returned and resumed my seat beside the 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 79 

Brahmin and the Havildar chief. The latter 
looked the picture of astonishment, but his 
look soon changed to one of contemptuous 
derision as he recalled his own power and 
our helplessness. 

A better, fiercer specimen of the Gurkha 
type as personified in this chief could not 
have been found, and no doubt he was sta- 
tioned at this important point on account of 
his marked personal characteristics. A short, 
thick-set man of the average height of his 
race (5 feet 4 inches), about fifty years of age; 
broad-shouldered, deep-chested, with sinews of 
iron, resembling the stunted weather-beaten 
oaks of his Himalayan home; his face pitted 
deeply with small-pox and further disfigured 
by an old savage gash down his cheek-bone, 
long since healed though badly put together 
— such was the Havildar, a thorough specimen 
of a human tiger, whom I now felt I must 
beard in his very den. 

By way of explanation I ought to say that 
the Havildar and his garrison, in keeping 
with their encouraged aversion to foreigners 
visiting their country, were bent on making 



80 ON INDIA'S FRONTIER. 

the most of a political technicality to prevent 
our further advance, even though it should be 
temporary only. This technicality was the 
neglect to have our passport vised by the 
Nepal Government, the propriety of which I 
did not for one moment question. 

I had already pointed out to the Resident 
at Hetowda this omission by his Department, 
but he had assured me that all would be right. 
Besides, the garrison knew full well, as I had 
explained to them that it would be monstrous 
to suppose that the Resident would permit 
what the Nepal Durbar or court would not 
sanction; that I had done my utmost to pre- 
vent just such a predicament as we were now 
in, and had taken every possible precaution to 
shield the garrison from any blame on our 
account. And, now, because somebody had 
been remiss in duty at the- British Residency 
before forwarding us our passport, it was very 
unjust that we should be made to suffer in 
this way. 

My object in writing at such length of this 
matter is owing to what I was aware involved 
a grave political principle, and on account of 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 81 

certain opinions expressed afterwards, when 
the matter was brought to the notice of the 
British authorities ; and though happily I was 
able to explain away all disagreeableness to 
the entire satisfaction of the Nepal Court, 
there still lingered a disposition among the 
former to blame me for acting injudiciously, 
if not high-handedly. 

Only a few, and those few who have had 
bitter experience themselves, will fully com- 
prehend my uncomfortable position, aggra- 
vated as it was by the results of a systematic 
and determined opposition on the part of the 
British Government in India (contrary to its 
general principles) against all European travel 
and commercial intercourse on the frontier of 
its Indian Empire. A short-sighted, brainless 
policy that has fostered in that dark corner of 
the earth ignorance and exclusiveness, and 
nourished bigotry, conceit, suspicion, hatred 
of the Feringhi, and the most mischievous 
of false notions, that has already cost England 
no end of trouble and expense, and is bound to 
brew for her still greater troubles and expense 
in the future. 



82 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

The Russians manage affairs better from 
their side.* One iMelligent European travel- 
ler, one conciliating Vilayati (white) mer- 
chant, one faithful pioneer missionary in a 
centre of darkness, has disbanded a regiment 
of fanatics and dispelled a whole army of mis- 
conceptions.f 



* The following extract from a leading Bombay paper indicates the very 
different methods adopted by Russia under similar circumstances, and in 
relation to this neutral belt : " A St. Petersburg correspondent writes 
'The great market at Nishni-Novgorod which has just been closed has 
this year brought several new and interesting facts to light, illustrating in a 
remarkable manner the beneficial results which Russia has obtained from 
her Central Asian conquests. Large territories, which only a few years ago 
were inhabited but by wild robbers, are being transformed into peaceful 
trading countries. The new Transcaspian Railway promises wonders in 
this way. Thanks to this railway, Persia, Khiva, Bokhara, and Turkestan 
were largely represented at the Nishni-Novgorod market this year as never 
before. Thanks to this same railway large quantities of Russian goods of 
every kind on the road to the different countries of Central Asia were in the 
market. The freights are not very heavy.' " 

+ Thomas Stevens, the special correspondent of Outing, while making a 
tour of the world on a bxycle, was checked while penetrating Afghanistan, 
and wrote to a personal friend : 

" You have heard, perhaps, that while I was a prisoner at Herat I wrote 
Col. Ridgeway, of the Boundary Commission, asking him, if possible, to 
assist me through to India, and that for answer the Governor of Herat re- 
ceived instructions to escort me back into Persia. I have met English trav- 
ellers and others since, who think Col. R. might have assisted me through 
that intervening few hundred miles, knowing that I had ridden from San 
Francisco to get there. Col. R. doubtless knows the reason for ignoring my 
request better than anybody else does, and the difficulties of the situation 
are probably greater than most people imagine. I saw quite enough in 
Afghanistan to understand why nobody, and particularly no newspaper cor- 
respondents are allowed in there at the present time, and could write an ar- 
ticle on what I saw that would no doubt create something of a sensation in 
London ; but, of course, I should be sorry to allow anything to escape me 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 83 



CHAPTER XL 

ENCOUNTER WITH THE HAVILDAR. 

Our Perwana had by this time been copied, 
and the copy well sprinkled with sand — the 
usual blotter of the natives. 

I took my document and arose. The Hav- 
ildar looked at me and demanded what I was 
going to do. I pointed to my sick boy and 
then to the coolies ahead, a good way up near 
the summit of the pass, and said in the most 
polite of Oriental diction that time was press- 
ing, the difficulties of the journey were great, 
and that I must hasten on. 

"No," said the Havildar, "you cannot pro- 

that might perhaps tend to aggravate the situation of affairs on the. frontier. 
I cannot help thinking, however, that had it happened to be anybody less 
favorable to our interests in Afghanistan than myself that had penetrated 
thus far behind the scenes, it might have been -as well to have treated him 
with a little more courtesy than to have him unceremoniously bounced out of 
the country. These thoughts occurred to me the other day in Tiflis, when a 
Russian officer, of sufficient influence and importance to be related to the 
Empress, approached me and tried to pump me concerning the roarfs and 
the nature of the country down below Herat." 



84 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

ceed. You must stay here, I have already de- 
tained white men like you until they were 
either sent back, or until all technicalities for 
their further advance were overcome." I re- 
plied, " You cannot stop me." He smiled de- 
risively, and ordered his men to form into line 
and see to their arms — more for effect than for 
anything else, I surmised. 

Suiting my actions to the bustling of the 
men and the noise of their arms, I lifted Harry 
to his feet and deliberately pushed a passage 
through the crowd. Then, as I passed out 
beyond the bars, I turned and shouted out, 
" Salam to the Havildar Sahib ! " 

Nothing but my control of temper and my 
determination had stood me in good stead and 
helped us to clear ourselves. The garrison 
looked astounded, and the Havildar was the 
picture of blank amazement. 

Something to the effect that here was the 
strangest Feringhi he had ever seen, passed 
his gritted teeth, followed by the mutterings 
of the garrison. 

Even the coolies away up above us noticed 
our passing out through the bars in spite of 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 85 

tlie guards, and stopped to watch with evident 
anxiety the outcome of such action, Avhile 
Harry himself realized that some ill-boding- 
menace had been overcome, for he remarked: 
" It seems to me we had a pretty close shave 
through those bars ! " 

I made some response by way of enourage- 
ment, though I mentally confessed to a feeling 
of unpleasant misgivings lest we had not seen 
the last of our Havildar friend and his armed 
attendants. 

Accordingly I urged the poor boy to quicken 
his pace, saying it would be advisable to put 
as much distance as possible between the gar- 
rison and ourselves. 

The ascent was still steep, but not so bad as 
the portion we had already surmounted, and 
we hoped in another hour to reach the top of 
the pass. Half an hour dragged out its lag- 
ging minutes, as we plodded wearily on and 
up, and just as I was thinking how foolish I 
had been to indulge in any misgivings, we 
heard shoutings behind us, and turned to find 
the Havildar (this time in uniform and his 
sword belted about him) accompanied by half 



86 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

a dozen of his sentries, carrying their muskets, 
at times running and then walking, in their 
effort to overtake us. 

At once I surmised their purport. They 
had evidently been thinking the matter over 
since we were allowed to pass, and had re- 
gretted their failure to offer us any serious 
resistance. 

Up they came, panting, breathless, and 
rudely shouted, "You must go back with us." 
I turned and faced them sternly, and in a firm, 
but polite, tone required of them some reason 
for their unseemly pursuit of us. Then, ad- 
dressing the Havildar, I asked if he took us for 
robbers, as any one would suppose we were, I 
said, judging from the threatening manner in 
which they had pursued us weapon in hand. 
Besides, had he not, only half an hour ago, 
tacitly acquiesced in our passing through his 
garrisoned enclosure ? " No ! " he shouted, 
"you must go back." I told him I would do 
nothing of the kind. " Well," he said, " I will 
make you, or take the consequences." At that 
he turned to his men and ordered them to ap- 
proach with their weapons ready. This scene 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 87 

quite overcame Harry, and he tottered and 
sank to the ground. The coolies with our 
servant up in the pass stood stock still. 

I now became fully aroused, and made no 
concealment of my outraged feelings. Turn- 
ing upon my asailants, I looked angrily at the 
Havildar and hissed out, " You miserable 
wretch, it was not enough for you to come up 
alone and thus torment me, but you must 
bring a lot of fellow cowards with you, with 
drawn swords and loaded muskets ! " 

" I tell you that if that child of mine dies, 
by all your gods I will require his blood of 
each one of you ; and as for you, the Havildar, 
the chiefest sinner of all, this time to-morrow 
I shall have audience with the Maharajah and 
require of him to send by hand of speedy mes- 
senger a platter, on which shall be carried 
back as atonement your bleeding head." 

This last declaration struck my opponents 
as not only possible but quite probable, and 
had a wonderful effect on the Havildar. But 
the reader must not suppose I had over-awed 
this band of Gurkhas. " They are not built 
that way." Although they stand in dread of 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 



their rulers wlio possess the power of life 
and death and exercise it summarily they no 
more cared for me personally than the tiger for 
the victim he has seized. 

The Gurkha, unlike his brother of India's 
plains — the mild, timid, rice-nurtured Hindoo 
— fights to the death against all odds, and de- 
servedly scorns the appellation of coward. 

I need hardly add that I was entirely un- 
armed as to my person beyond a light bamboo 
stick, as an alpenstock, and it was only while 
this dramatic scene was culminating that 
there flashed across my brain the recollection 
of a long-forgotten six-shooter — America's 
latest patent — packed away in my bag, and 
which might stand me in good stead should 
matters be pushed further. I must confess, 
however, that I had not the remotest idea of 
handling this weapon, being a thorough be- 
liever in persuasion over powder, so that such 
an extreme recourse was no sooner thought of 
than dismissed. 

As stated, the Havildar was suddenly im- 
pressed with the probable realization of my 
threat, for without any special effort of the 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 



imagination he evidently saw his head passing 
along that same path on a platter on the top 
of another head — that of the coolie messenger 
— speeding back to his royal master. He at 
once changed his demeanor. He ordered his 
men to fall back, and in an altered tone and 
polite way asked if I would return to his gar- 
rison quarters. 

" Ah, Havildar Sahib," I said, " you now 
talk like a respectable Gurkha — a brave people 
that I have always admired. Had you spoken 
to me in that way when first we met, I might 
have complied with your wishes, but it is not 
possible now for me to go back. I belong 
to a great nation that will do anything for 
anybody if asked ; but, like you, we will never 
be driven, no matter what the odds," and I 
eyed his men and their muskets with a signifi- 
cant smile. 

" What I now propose is that you send me 
under an armed escort to Khatmandu, where, 
if your Maharajah proscribes me, or does not 
sanction the perwana I hold from the Resi- 
dent, then I promise to return with your 
guard, and you can deport me out of your 



90 ON INDIA'S FRONTIER. 

country. Anyway, I assure you I will not 
allow the least blame to be attached to you 
by your superiors." 

This speech had the desired effect on the 
mind of the Havildar, for with all his rough 
exterior he had in him the stuff that has made 
the Gurkha name famous in military annals. 

He ordered his men to return to their quar- 
ters, told me I could proceed without inter- 
ference, apologized for his rudeness, remarking 
that he was not accustomed to meet such a 
sahib, and that he should never forget me. 
This promise he and his subordinates well 
fulfilled some weeks later, when, on our return 
journey, they came out a mile or more to meet 
us, escorted us to their quarters, did every- 
thing possible for our comfort, while we put 
up in their midst for the night, and the next 
morning when bidding us a hearty goodbye, 
the old Havildar, acting as chief spokesman, 
came up with a smile that lit up his jagged 
features and said, "You are a sahib that will 
not require a perwana with us in the future." 









S- 



< s 

^ 'Z 



-"^^ 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. ^1 



CHAPTER XII. 

OUR FIRST VIEW OF KHATMANDU, 

On arriving at the summit of the pass, we 
threw ourselves down to get some rest and 
waited for our servant to prepare breakfast. 
Harry was quite prostrated, but had been 
buoyed up by the excitement. The cold, crisp 
air, too, had the effect of a tonic, and we both 
at once became absorbed in a prospect not 
often presenting such extreme contrasts. 

Eternal winter sat perched upon peaks con- 
fronting us, whose mantle of purity had never 
been defiled by the foot of man. Eternal 
summer reigned in the narrow valleys at our 
feet, variegated like patchwork with the dif- 
ferent shades of crops raised in their little ter- 
raced fields in rotation by the frugal peasantry, 
whose small mud houses formed mere dots up 
the mountain sides. Far behind stretched the 
immense plain of upper Bengal which we had 



92 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

so wearily traversed, overhung with murkiness 
that was suggestive of a hot sun and ground 
radiating a fierce heat. 

About us played the cool breezes wafted from 
the snows, singing after each other in and out 
of the fir tree tops when they would go to 
swell the grand chorus that came floating up 
at intervals from over the low lying ranges 
and out of valleys thousands of feet below us 
— a chorus formed by the combined hallelujahs 
of a multitude of silvery streams in their fare- 
well descent from the "abodes of the blest." 

Breakfast over and we at once began to de- 
scend, gratified to find that the path was not 
so steep as the one by which we had ascended 
to the top of the pass. Heavy overshadowing 
forests cut off all our view, though the peeps 
we got here and there revealed an almost per- 
pendicular fall before us of some thousands of 
feet into a narrow, rugged gorge whose bottom 
was strewn with boulders and granite blocks, 
big as "double-storied houses." There they 
lay in the bed of a large stream, the Markhu, 
twisting and churning its waters into milky 
foam. 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 93 

It was noon before we readied the bottom. 
Here tbe increased temperature made living 
almost unbearable. We passed through a 
small thatched village that lined the road and 
so near the bank of the Markhu that it must 
stand a good chance of being carried away in 
the monsoon. Beyond rose a high, rickety, 
wooden bridge over which our road was car- 
ried and at an elevation fully a hundred feet 
above the bed of the stream, showing what the 
constructor of the bridge thought of the possi- 
ble rise of the river in a flood; and he was right, 
for 50 to 100 feet we found in such deep narrow 
valleys was not an unusual rise. 

We did not care to mount this high, airy 
bridge, but passed through the bed of the 
stream upon a temporary structure of brush 
and stones so common in the Himalayas, 
thrown across streams during the fair weather 
months, with enough passages underneath to 
let the water flow through. 

For the first time since leaving the Terai 
our road now began to be bordered with 
cultivated fields, small for want of room, but 
very fertile, with pretty little houses scattered 



94 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

about, surrounded by winter wheat, radishes 
and other growing cold weather crops — the 
pleasing beneficial results of thrift and 
patient husbandry. The country grew more 
thickly populated, the peasantry we found 
courteous and hospitable, and when Harry 
gave out completely, we were conducted to a 
shady veranda of a neat house beside the road 
and made comfortable. 

After a long rest Harry awoke refreshed, 
partook of some broth and declared we should 
not stop on his account ; so we again packed 
up and proceeded. We crossed and recrossed 
the Markhu several times by the fair season 
bridges, already described, cams to the fine 
large Powah, also called Markhu like the 
stream, but being distant from any village it 
was not suited to us owing to the difficulty of 
procuring food supplies, so we pressed on hav- 
ing to make an abrupt ascent out of the Mark- 
hu valley of two to three thousand feet. This 
brought us to high open ground well cleared 
and cultivated, the houses of the peasantry 
astonishing us by running up to three, and 
even four and five stories, with their roofs 
covered by tiny flat tiles. 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 95 

Just at dusk we entered the flourishing 
town of Chitlong, or Chota Nepal, some thir- 
teen miles from Bhimphedi, and passed the 
night in a rectangular open building, border- 
ing the road, but very much out of repair. 
Could we only have gone on another mile, we 
would have come to a very fine large Powah, 
but the darkness forbade this. We also 
learned that there were much better quarters 
inside the town, close to the place where we 
had put up, but we did not care to go there, it 
being as we found already occupied by a large 
noisy party belonging to some of the Nepal 
princes journeying down into India on the 
backs of seven elephants. How these monsters 
manage to go over such ground as we had 
traversed, and how they surmount the high 
passes, is a mystery, and must be seen to be 
believed and appreciated. 

Our Chitlong night suddenly developed 
into a stormy one, the rain and mist being 
driven through our too freely ventilated build- 
ing by violent gusts of wind. We managed, 
however, to keep dry and by morning the 
storm cleared, when the temperature as sud- 



96 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

denly fell, producing cold that chilled us 
through and forced us to rise and move about 
to start up our circulation. 

We were determined to make one forced 
march that day, and, if possible, reach Khat- 
mandu by evening, the distance being only 
fifteen miles. However a high pass intervened 
which we would have to surmount, and this 
caused us some doubts. At all events we de- 
cided to make the attempt, and if Harry's 
fever, which had not returned since the past 
night, did not meanwhile come on again, we 
felt sure of covering the whole distance by 
night-fall. 

Our progress at first was along a fair road 
slightly ascending between two spurs that 
met on the Chundragiri range, where, in a de- 
pression on the ridge and at a point 7,186 feet 
above sea level, was situated the Pass of the 
same name as the range over which we had 
to climb. After accomplishing two miles we 
began the steep ascent, and it was while 
tugging away to reach the top, that Harry's 
fever again set in, causing us grave doubts 
about getting through that day. 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 97 

Half-way up we fell in with, a string of 
coolies (they always like to travel in large 
companies) carrying cotton twist, cloth, 
Swedish matches, American kerosene, country 
soap, pig-iron and copper ware. What struck 
us as odd was that these coolies had them- 
selves hired other coolies at Chitlong to help 
in carrying their loads for them up over 
the pass. One poor half-famished, gaunt-look- 
ing fellow told me he was carrying a bundle 
of saffron weighing over a hundred-weight, all 
the way from Benares to Khatmandu, some 
three hundred miles, and had been marching 
steadily twenty-seven days, receiving for such 
an undertaking the high inducement fee of 
seven rupees (or about ten shillings, equivalent 
to $2.40 !) Out of this he was paying to have 
this load carried up the pass for him. 

More than once we had occasion to notice 
the quantities of country soap made in small 
balls, sewed up in cloth bags, weighing up to 
two hundred pounds, that were brought from 
Mozufferpur and other neighboring Indian 
towns (where they were manufactured) into 
Nepal. The business must be a large one. 



98 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

By lo a. m., we reached the top of Chundra- 
giri (meaning the " Moon mountain ") pass, 
and found the ground whitened by hail stones 
of the previous night's storm, and covered 
with hoar frost, though the sun was shining 
brightly. Our eyes were now treated to a re- 
cherche banquet covering such a stupendous 
spread, and composed of such innumerable 
courses that no pen of a ready writer or brush 
of a master painter could ever portray and do 
it justice. Chitlong and its valley lay on one 
side of us; on the other, and at a greater 
depth, stretching out east and west, was the 
valley of Nepal proper, twenty-five miles by 
ten. This valley is more like a plain, where 
no doubt once rose and fell the waters of a 
vast lake, before it had worn for itself the only 
outlet through the encircling chain of highest 
mountains, by what now marks the course of 
the Bagmati stream. This outlet once secured, 
the waters of the lake were drained off, leav- 
ing the bed to form the present fertile valley. 

In its centre, plainly visible to our unaided 
sight, figured the houses, palaces, pagodas and 
temples of the capital city of Khatmandu, lo- 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 99 

cated between the two streams of Bagmati 
and Vishnuniati. Close by and south of it 
extended another city, the old capital Patan, 
while far beyond, at the head ot the valley, 
appeared Bhatgaon, a still older capital. All 
about were thickly scattered farm houses, sur- 
rounded by extensive cultivations, and as if 
the level of the valley did not afford sufficient 
room for the crops, the fields were carried a 
long distance up the picturesque slopes that 
everywhere encircled the mountain sides. 
Above the fields extended the forests that soon 
belitttled themselves as they approached the 
abodes of snow and completely retired from 
the presence of a perfect sea of crowned 
heads culminating in that white-headed, grey- 
bearded monarch, old Everest, 29000 ft. high. 

This monster, though a hundred miles off, 
was distinctly visible as his bifurcated cone- 
like head pierced the sky and formed the 
farthest point visible in a north-easterly direc- 
tion, though we tried our best to penetrate the 
blue beyond and get a peep at our familiar 
Darjeeling friend, Kinchenjunga. 

Finding this impossible, we ran our eye 



100 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

along the towering heads and shoulders of the 
giants nearer to us, flashing their brilliants in 
the sunlight. 

Fully one-third of the extensive visible 
horizon we found was required to give suffi- 
cient accommodation to this aged royal as- 
sembly. Out of their number the nearest to 
us were Gosain Than, 26,000 feet, Yassa, 24,000 
feet, Matsiputra, 24,400, and Diwalgiri, 
26,800. And as we looked up to them from our 
own lofty position in the grand stillness of that 
magnificent morning, we were inspired with 
awe at the sublime spectacle, and felt an in- 
clination to uncover our heads ; for they 
seemed to have penetrated into the very pre- 
cincts of heaven and communed with the In- 
visible whose glories they reflected. What 
wonder that the Hindoo associates with each 
one of these tremendous peaks the abode of 
some of his deities, and thus has formed, 
clustered about him, a grander pantheon than 
the Greeks ever conceived of ! The Himalayas 
(or the "abode of snow " as the name signifies) 
might more fittingly be termed the " Abode 
of the Infinite." 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 101 



CHAPTER XIII. 
WE ARRIVE AT THE NEPAL CAPITAL, 

It was while our thoughts were thus ab- 
sorbed in the grand panorama described in 
the previous chapter, when like one in Holy 
Writ we might have exclaimed '^ It is good for 
us to be here," that our coolies caught up 
with us and broke the spell, forcing us to de- 
scend to the contemplation of common every- 
day affairs, as suddenly as they occasioned 
our descent some 2,500 feet, by a most abrupt, 
stony, precipitous, slippery, dangerous path to 
the village of Tankote. There we struck 
the level of the Nepal valley and sat down 
in the pleasant veranda of a neat farm house 
to partake of our last meal before going on 
to the city, still ten miles distant, though 
over a level, bridged, carriage-made road as 
we afterwards found. There to our surprise 
we met a Calcutta-built carriage (imported 



102 ON INDIA 'S FBONTIER. 

in sections) drawn by a couple of walers, 
(Australian bred horses). 

Harry's fever had now left him though he 
had had quite a tussle with it, and while the 
attack was not quite so long as that of the pre- 
vious day (perhaps from not giving away to it) 
yet it had left him weaker. While waiting for 
our lunch to be got ready, we had a look around 
and were particularly struck with the large 
number of trees and birds, as being the same 
we were accustomed to in Tropical India, but 
owing to Nepal's elevation above the sea 
(4,500 feet), they appeared somewhat modified, 
suggesting a compromise between the tropics 
and the temperate zone. 

We were in the midst of our lunch when the 
mother of one of the Nepal queens passed by 
with two slave girls, all seated in a Howdah 
perched upon an elephant. There was quite 
a string of attendants, palankeens, dandies or 
sedan chairs, and coolies following. The 
Princess looked like an old lady of light com- 
plexion without the usual disfiguring Indian 
purdah or veil; she was apparently not strong, 
yet was bound for Holy Kasi (the Hindoo's 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 103 

name for Benares) on a pilgrimage, to bathe 
in the sanctifying stream, propitiate the dei- 
ties with votive offerings to return with a 
quieted conscience and a cleaner soul. The 
Princess and her slaves descended from the 
elephant near us and entered palankeens, not 
daring to make the ascent of Chundragiri 
perched upon his lofty back. This emphasized 
the criticisms that we had made upon the 
policy of such a powerful and independent 
State as Nepal in keeping up its only direct 
communication with the outside world by a 
mere path for its highway. 

It was evident that Nepal, from motives of 
supposed policy had done her best to utilize 
the barriers of nature for rendering access to 
her soil most difficult. This might have an- 
swered the requirements of by-gone times, but 
as the writer afterwards informed some of the 
Nepalese princes, such an out-of-date policy 
was now simply suicidal. The lack of easy 
communication was made specially aggravat- 
ing at that time by the fact that the telegraph 
though brought to their borders was not 
allowed to be extended to their capital city. 



104 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

I added that nature had evidently intended 
the most feasible course out from their valley 
to be via the Bagmati, and this would readily 
bring them into India, from which quarter 
they had nothing to fear and much to gain. 
For pledged as England was to be her ally, 
should ever an occasion arise for her to send 
troops into Nepal, she would not march them 
over the passes of Cisagurdi and Chundragiri, 
but her engineers would adopt a much easier 
route, simplified by nature like the one above 
indicated. Why, therefore, should they not 
also take advantage for themselves of a more 
available road, thereby enlarging trade, de- 
veloping their revenues and building up a 
prosperous, enlightened State ? But more of 
this afterwards. 

It was now 3 p. m., so packing up for the 
last time, we started with our coolies and 
reached the city gate by sundown. We passed 
through narrow, filthy streets for a mile, then 
ofot out on the other side of the citv, whence 
we were conducted into the limits of the 
British Residency grounds, and here in a 
small building set apart for travelers we found 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 105 

grateful shelter and congratulated ourselves 
on having accomplished the distance of about 
one hundred miles from Segowli in a week 
without any serious mishap. 

The following is a resume of our itinerary- 
showing hours of actual travel : 

Darjeeling to Calcutta ... 26 hours: 375 miles by railway. 

These distances 
were done by 
daily marches, 
mostly on foot, 
and give a total ot 
102 miles accom- 

, pllshed in 8 days. 

( The straight route 
to Khatmandu 
would give 9 6 
miles but we pre- 
ferred a slight de- 
tour to secure a 
better road. 

The next morning we received a kind mes- 
sage from the Residency surgeon asking if 
we needed anything. I sent back " salams " 
(thanks) by the servant, saying we required 
nothing, and that I would call upon him by 
noon. The doctor and the Resident are the 
only Europeans dwelling in Nepal, and now 
that the latter was away, the doctor was 
doing duty for the Resident as well. 

My call was a pleasant one. -^ He invited me 



Calcutta to Segowli 


22 


440 


Segowli to Persowny . . . . 


10 


26 


Parsowny to Semrabassa 


. 8 " 


10 


Semrabassa to Bechiakho 


4 " 


10 


Bechiakho to Hetowdad . 


5 " 


12 


Hetowdah to Bhimphedi . 


12 


15 


Bhimphedi to Chitlong . . 


13 " 


14 


Chitlong to Khatmandu . 


12 " 


15 



lOG ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

to come over with Harry and put up with him. 
At first I hesitated, but the day following we 
went with all our impedimenta and were made 
very comfortable in his new double-storied 
brick house, with a pleasant garden, abound- 
ing in roses, and bordered on its westerly side 
by a grove of pine trees, beyond which the 
ground rapidly descended into low, swampy 
land laid out in rice fields — rice being the 
staple crop of the entire valley. A Gurkha 
lieutenant, deputed as the daily orderly officer 
from the Nepal Court to the Residency for 
carrying messages, now called on me at my 
request and conveyed to the Maharajah my 
wish to see him and pay him my respects. 
The term Maharajah, though meaning king, 
has the exceptional use in this State of being 
applied to designate the Prime Minister, 
while the king himself is called Maharaj-ad- 
hiraj, who in the present instance was a mere 
boy of ten years, not troubled much with State 
affairs. Our host was not very sanguine 
about the old Maharajah caring to see me, 
stating that he was a staunch Hindoo, 
with a strong antipathy to Europeans and 




HIS MAJESTY NEPAL S YOUNG KING. 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 107 



averse to having anything to do with them ; 
certainly not an encouraging prospect. So 
when the orderly returned, I was not surprised 
to be informed that the Maharajah could not 
see me now but would be glad to meet me 
soon, which was only a polite, oriental way of 
saying next week, or next month, or never. 

However, there was no alternative but to wait 
until the interview was granted, for without 
that indispensible formality, I could neither 
call on anybody nor attempt to transact any 
business, nor ask anyone to come and see me. 
Not knowing all about these rules I had tried 
to get word to a merchant (who by the way 
was a native of Bengal and hence a British 
subject) to come and talk with me on any bus- 
iness or other matters when possibly I could 
assist him. He returned an answer that he 
should like to very much, but that this was 
impossible until I had had my first audience 
with the Prime Minister ; and more than that 
not till he himself had applied and obtained 
permission to meet me, which he declared 
would on no condition be allowed him till the 
Maharajah nad seen and talked with me ! 



108 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

Besides, it was hinted, that if I expected to 
do any business with the Nepalese I must on 
no account stay within the limits of the Resi- 
dency grounds, for everyone who went or came 
thither incurred some degree of suspicion and 
was subject to strict surveillance from the 
Nepal officials, an ordeal no native willingly 
underwent.* This advice that I change my 
quarters was all very well, but was not so 
easily done as said, since no European on any 
account is allowed to live in the town or neigh- 
borhood; at least not till the Maharajah's ex- 
press sanction has been obtained; and this I 
could not look for until after the oft-mentioned 
and anxiously expected audience. 

So now there was nothing left for us to do 
but to fill up as best we could the intervening 
leisure hours. Fortunately I had brought 
along a camera and though able to secure 
only a few negative dry plates, which the past 
monsoon had badly damaged, we determined 
to put them to good use, and in this way to 



* It is to be regretted that there is, socially speaking, no intercourse 
between the Residency and the members of the Nepal court or Durbar, 
So much suspicion might be allayed, so much espionage abolished, so much 
good effected by a pleasant friendship between the two parties. 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 109 

occupy ourselves with what results my readers 
must judge. In this connection I would ac- 
knowledge my indebtedness to Mr. Hoffman, 
of the firm of Messrs. Johnson and Hoffman, 
photographers, Calcutta, for giving me a few 
dry plates, and also for the accompanying 
portraits of the Nepal Princes to illustrate my 
narrative, 

Mr. Hoffman had come up from Calcutta 
with a European artist assistant, to photo- 
graph the carvings and other curiosities that 
were being collected under the supervision of 
of the Residency surgeon for the Indian and 
Colonial Exhibition to be held in London 
as well as to take what pictures he could 
of the Nepalese officers and their court. In 
this he was very successful and was well 
patronized as he richly deserved to be 

Our first photographing trip was up x hill 
infested with monkeys, and crowned with a 
most conspicuous gilded shrine of Swayam- 
bhunatha, about two miles towards the north 
of the Residency, outside the city walls. To 
reach it we had to pass over a badly paved 
road and when we got to the foot of the hill 



110 ON INDIA'S FRONTIER. 

we came upon a broad flight of ancient stone 
steps numbering some three hundred and 
fifty, worn smooth by the feet of millions of 
devotees, and guarded at the bottom by a 
couple of large stone griffins together with a 
huge statue of Sakya Sinha or Buddha. 

The steps grew steeper as one ascended and 
finally when the top was reached, three hun- 
dred feet above the base, a very fine view of 
the city and encircling snow-capped mountains 
was obtained. At the very entrance of the 
collection of shrines crowded together above 
is an immense brass thunderbolt of the god 
Indra, shaped like a huge hour-glass laid 
across a pedestal or platform three feet high 
and plated over with brass sheets covered 
with animals in bas-relief. 

Just-back of this rises fifty feet high the solid 
rock of the top of the hill cut out into a colos- 
sal Bhuddistic dome or Chaitya, surmounting 
which there is a tapering wooden Pagoda, 
running up for another fifty feet, capped by a 
chutter or umbrella which reflects the sun- 
light from its gilded sides and is visible to 
the whole valley, reminding the traveler of 
the pagodas in Burmah raised by pious hands 




TOP OF SWAYAMBHUNATHA HILL AND SHRINE. 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. Ill 



on every cominanding point along the Irra- 
waddy. 

This Chaitya formed the prominent centre 
around which a whole Pantheon of Hindoo 
deities in stone and brass, besides copper 
bells, Bhutea prayer-wheels, and the graves 
of the dead, were arranged with no apparent 
order, and we instinctively looked about ex- 
pecting to find as well an altar dedicated to 
the Unknown God, for here at last was a spot 
where there was neither Jew nor Gentile, 
where beneath the shadows of the "Abodes of 
the Gods," the world's two greatest sects, for- 
getting their differences, had clasped hands; 
where Hindooism and Bhuddism had bound 
together in one volume their Sanscrit Shastras 
and the sayings of Sakya Muni, and where the 
Mongolian from Pekin with the Malabari from 
Ramyeshwar bent the knee side by side in 
the same sacred precincts consecrated alike to 
Bhudda and Siva — a striking prophetic illus- 
tration for those who believe in the great 
harmony that is to come. 

But there was another phase to all this : 
The "shades of the ancestors," assuming the 
forms of the most cheeky monkeys the world 



112 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

ever saw, disported themselves about, making 
light of these hallowed scenes, defiling even 
the Holy of Holies, taunting the most devout 
pilgrim with winks, smirks and fiendish grim- 
aces; then, as if this was all a good joke, 
they would add injury to insult by daring, on 
the sly, with sacrilegious paws to snatch away 
the votive offerings out of the very hands of 
the sin-stricken penitents, escape with their 
booty and impudently sit down to eat it at 
their leisure, perched up beside the nostrils of 
the gods themselves and wipe their whiskers 
on the divine heads ! What was most surpris- 
ing, no one seemed to take notice of them, or 
resent their conduct, and great was the aston- 
ishment manifested by the monkeys when we 
went at them for trying to upset our camera, 
and especially when one old, red faced black- 
guard, who must have once been a thorough 
scoundrel of a Hindoo, thought of appropriat- 
ing our camera cloth ! 

We here saw and photographed the finest 
bit of elaborate wood carving forming the side 
of one of the temple buildings, (unfortunately 
damaged by age) that is to be found in Nepal, 
and that is saying a good deal. 



il 



122 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

Our rambles in the city itself secured us 
some characteristic pictures, and much insight 
into Nepal daily life. One of the best general 
views obtained of the city buildings and lanes, 
was from the top of the Dharera a substantial 
masonry pillar, two hundred and fifty feet 
high, containing a winding staircase and built 
by General Bhimasena Thapa in 1856. It re- 
sembled a lighthouse in all but the light which 
it lacked. 

Permission had to be obtained to ascend it, 
which was readily secured, and from its nar- 
row masonry apertures we could look down on 
one side and see several thousand Gurkha 
soldiers going through various drill move- 
ments under officers dressed in English uni- 
forms, who, in order to be consistent, shouted 
out their various commands in English, though 
none of the troops understood that language. 

The esplanade where the troops paraded 
was a splendid stretch of ground, all made and 
leveled at great expense, running close along 
the city wall and just outside of it. The 
troops are drilled here every day and with 
slight intermission, often from morning till 




-yjr* 




ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 123 

evening, and this seems to be the one great 
pastime of the nobility. No games or other 
manly exercises are at all popular with old or 
young, a fact to be regretted. 

Nepal has a standing army of 15,000 men, 
drilled and armed with old muzzle-loading 
guns, and, in any emergency, could put into 
the field more than three times that number, 
of either time-expired men, or men who have 
some knowledge of soldiering. Indeed, every 
family has to contribute one of its male mem- 
bers at least as its quota to the military es- 
tablishment, and to a stranger going about 
Khatmandu and neighborhood every other 
man he meets seems to be a soldier in dark 
blue uniform. 

The bulk of the troops are infantry ; there is 
no cavalry, unless a mounted guard be called 
such (they would be of little use), and only a 
small force of artillery. There are boy gen- 
erals and gray-headed old lieutenants, the re- 
sults of an autocratic government, where all 
power is held by one who cannot be questioned, 
and who deals out the honors to the nearest 
and dearest. 



134 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

The maintenance of so great a standing 
army, out of all proportion to her ordinary 
needs, is Nepal's greatest mistake, and can do 
her nothing but harm. There seems to be a 
perfect craze among her nobility for the pro- 
fession of arms and for no other; thus divert- 
ing a good share of the revenues and of the 
country's best brain and sinew from channels 
where they could be far better employed in 
building up the prosperity of the State and 
strengthening the lines of its independence ; 
for, as already stated, Nepal has nothing to 
fear from India, and with England as her 
sworn ally she has nothing to fear from Thibet. 

As regards India, were Nepal from any in- 
sane cause to attempt to withstand her, all her 
own population, added to all her troops, could 
oppose no effectual resistance, and history al- 
ready has shown that though she might fight 
Thibet alone successfully, yet Thibet, backed 
by China, is more than a match for her. 

No, let Napal keep an army, but only a small 
one, and on the German plan let her educate, 
if she chooses, all her subjects in military 
tactics, so that when required, she can turn 




GENERAL JIT JUNG. 
(Late Commander-in-Chief.) 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 125 

into the field at a moment's notice a whole 
nation of drilled troops. One cannot help 
feeling at times that England is doing her 
best, by her bribes and presents of vast stands 
of arms and immense quantities of ammuni- 
tion to the States on her frontiers, to induce 
them to keep up a ruinous standing army for 
no other purpose than to use them as a buffer 
against the growing spectre of Russian ag- 
gression towards India. If true, she has much 
to answer for, and much to suffer from her 
own gifts, should the buffers turn the muzzles 
the wrong way. 

Nepal has made attempts to manufacture 
her own arms and ammunition, but the re- 
sults have been very poor. That she does 
not take hold of this matter more intelligently 
and efficiently is inexplicable and inconsistent 
with her great fondness for the profession of 
arms. 

But to go back and take up our camera left 
on top of the Dharera looking down on the 
parading Gurkhas : On the opposite side 
from the esplanade lay the capital city of 
50,000 inhabitants wedged in between the 



126 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

Bagmati and VishntLmati, extending up from 
the point where these streams unite, and 
presenting a most picturesque appearance 
outwardly, but inwardly reeking with filth ; 
a city which has dunghills for its foundations, 
stagnant pools for ornamental lakes, whose 
streets do duty for drains and latrines, where 
the widest thoroughfares are narrow lanes 
wretchedly paved, only fit for inoculated 
pedestrians. Such is Khatmandu, with its 
ever present effluvia and stench, so that it is 
no wonder that during the summer .just clos- 
ing ten thousand, or one-fifth of its popula- 
tion had fallen victims to cholera. 

Indeed the wonder is that they did not all 
die by that fell disease, about which I had 
the opportunity of telling the Maharajah that 
it was much more of a dangerous intruder 
than any European could be. I told him, 
moreover, that but for his making it so con- 
genial for the loathsome monster to take up 
its residence in his Capital, it would never 
come. I added that he, the Prince, had it in 
his power, by a little attention to sanitation, 
to banish the wretch so that it should never 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 113 



CHAPTER XIV. 

STRANGE PHOTOGRAPHIC EXPERIENCES. 

From Swayambhunatha or Symbhunath,) 
as it is called for short) we made our next 
photographic raid on the most sacred of all 
Nepal's shrines — Holy Pashupati — purely Hin- 
doo, three miles to the east of Khatmandu 
city, crowded thick with temples, bathing and 
burning ghats ; its rows of stone steps leading 
down to the Bagmati, covered with early 
morning bathers and devout worshipers, facing 
the sun and mumbling over their vmntJira 
thunthras. 

Here, every February, come wending their 
way from the most distant cities of India a 
gathering of weary pilgrims, numbering as 
many as twenty-five thousand, and without 
waiting for any special movement of the 
waters, but for the moon to become full, they 
have a dip in the sanctifying Bagmati. Hither, 



114 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

too, the dead and dying are liurried and laid 
where their feet will be washed by the sacred 
stream, to ensure for the soul a safe and rapid 
transit into the realms of bliss, and this cere- 
mony over, the body (sometimes even while 
the fluttering spirit is hesitating to wing its 
long flight) "'^ is made over to the flames of the 
funeral pile. Here also we were told was a 
spot where the forlorn widow used to commit 
suttee, by casting herself upon the burning 
pyre of her dead husband. This rite, however, 
is now abolished, the last recorded instance 
being at the death of the previous Maharajah, 
when his favorite wife immolated herself on 
his burning body. 

The location of Pashupati is most pictur- 



* I am here reminded of an incident told me by the Residency Surgeon. 
The young wife of a well-to-do Hindoo was struck down by cholera. Our 
friend, the doctor, was called and he hastened, to attend her. She rallied 
and bade fair to recover. What was his surprise to be told two or three days 
later that the woman was being carried at that very moment to the 
Pashupati burning ghat. He mounted his horse and rushed down to the 
pUce, there he found his poor patient still alive, but laid out so that her feet 
touched the flowing stream, while beside her the wood was being arranged 
and the cremation ceremonies were under way. The doctor expostulated 
with the husband and relatives, and urged them to desist at once from their 
murderous intentions, as the woman was not dead. They finally were pre- 
vailed upon to stay proceedings and to take the poor woman home, where 
she survived three days, and but for her rough treatment and attempt at 
premature cremation, she might have lived and recovered. 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 115 



esque, situated on one side of the Bagmati, 
where the stream flows through a gorge with 
precipitous banks, a hundred feet in hei^^ht 
On the bank opposite — covered with trees and 
commanding a full view of the sacred build- 
ings — we focused our camera and took the ac- 
companying views. 

One amusing incident occurred while taking 
the holiest temple of all— Pashupatinatha— 
with its gilded pagoda top or chutter. This 
shrine is the principal one in Pashupati, and 
has silvered doors half way up the flight of 
steps leading from the Bagmati into its court- 
yard. We had just taken one view and were 
duplicating it, when one of the attending 
priests happened to look up, and not liking 
our unhallowed gaze, though he had no idea of 
what we were doing, slammed the two silvered 
doors together with great violence, in exhibi- 
tion of his disgust. As we were much above 
him on the opposite bank, and could look over 
into the court- yard of the temple, the shutting 
of the doors in our face, as it were, was rather 
an improvement than otherwise, for it showed 
their rich construction to better advantage. 



116 ON INDIA'S FRONTIER. 

This temple is deemed so sacred that though 
there is a public thoroughfare on the opposite 
side from where we stood, no European is al- 
lowed to pass along that portion of the road 
adjacent to its outer wall and entrance. 

It was while contemplating this varied scene 
and thinking what a power Hindooism must 
be to invest so inaccessible an out-of-the-way 
corner with such soul-enslaving sanctity, as 
to induce Baboos from Bengal, Ascetics from 
the Punjab, Brahmans from the Deccan to 
come to do puja (worship) so many hundreds 
of miles, in midwinter, at great personal sacri- 
fice — I say it was while pondering over all this 
that the thought expressed at the beginning 
of this account was suggested for the partic- 
ular benefit of any possible readers amxong 
my large circle of esteemed Hindoo friends 
who will best understand the force of this 
inquiry — why we, Vilayati B hurts (freely ren- 
dered "of the foreign priestly Brahman caste" 
— that is, Caucasian) could not lay claim at 
Pashupati to sonic punya, as our merited 
share, having come so many times further 
than the farthest-traveled pilgrim there ! 




THE HOLY SILVER TEMPLE AT PASHUPATI. 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 117 

Another fresh morning we devoted to the 
interesting tope of Bodhnath, about two miles 
north-east of Pashupati, a purely Bhuddistic 
shrine, without any mixture of Hindooism. 

It is an immense, artificially-prepared, white- 
washed chaitya of bricks and mortar, with 
long rows of circular steps or terraces, rising 
in diminishing circles, one above the other, to 
the height of fifty feet, where the top of the 
tope is reached. Out of that rises an equally 
tall wooden pillar, or Bhuddistic minaret, sur- 
mounted by a gilded, brazen chutter, the um- 
brella being fringed with little bells having 
long, flat tongues. These every passing breeze 
causes to tinkle forth prayers, which at that 
elevation, so much nearer heaven, getting the 
start, precede and help to give greater accept- 
ance before the great throne to the petitions 
rising from the devotees themselves below, 
as they make their peTegrinations around the 
circular base of the chaitya, some two hundred 
feet in diameter. 

What is more, further to ensure divine hear- 
ing, the praying supplicants, as they walk 
their rounds, encircling over and over again 



118 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

this imposing tope, give twirls to the many 
prayer wheels (over a foot long and not half 
as broad) arranged in a double row in niches in 
the masonry of the chaitya, keeping time to 
their step by chanting over- and- over the sim- 
ple, expressive prayer that has consoled mil- 
lions, being the first words lisped by the 
infant, the last breathed forth by the dying : — 
" Om Mani Padmi hom " — O God, the Jewel 
in the Lotus. Amen ! — or, O God, let me 
attain perfection, and obtain eternal bliss. 
Amen. 

All around this Bhuddistic shrine is a dou- 
ble storied range of buildings w^ith shops 
below and dwellings above, completely en- 
circling the tope in a kind of courtyard. 
During winter this place is filled with hun- 
dreds of Bhuteas and Thibetians, who come 
in caravans bringing skins, woolen stuffs, 
bricks of tea, musk and gold dust — some of 
these articles on their own backs, and the rest 
laden on ponies, mules, 3^akes and goats. 

We picked up some curiosities here, such as 
ornaments for women, some elaborate ones 
set with turquoises. 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 119 

I should have stated earlier, that whenever 
we ventured outside the Residency grounds, 
we were required, from motives of policy, to 
have an orderly, or Nepalese soldier precede 
us and to carry a sepoy of the Residency 
Guard with us, and thus attended we used to 
make our various trips, followed by a coolie 
bearing our camera. 

That it was necessary to be thus always 
provided with such a guard of honor I now 
question, for we have only the pleasantest 
recollections of all our excursions, and re- 
ceived nothing but courtesy and kindness 
from prince and peasant. 

Just as we were getting somewhat im- 
patient at not hearing from the Maharajah 
and at his not appointing a day for our in- 
terview, word came through the orderly officer 
that His Excellency, General Runudip Sing, 
K. C. S. I. (Knight Commander of the Star of 
India) would be pleased to fix upon Tuesday 
in the following week to have me call. This 
would bring about our meeting on the thir- 
teenth day from the date of our arrival, and 
was sooner than our fears had allowed us to 



120 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER, 

expect, realizing how painfully slow a course 
affairs are allowed to take in the East. 

The few intervening days were spent in 
going about the city and in visiting Balaji, a 
Hindoo shrine about a mile and a half north- 
west of the Residency, and to reach which, we 
passed along a well made road completely 
arched over by a fine avenue of willows. This 
road was the work of Sir Jung Bahadur, who 
had an excellent wooden bridge, resting on 
stout piles constructed for it, where it crossed 
the Vishnumati stream. 

The deity that interested us most at Balaji 
was a huge recumbent figure of Siva, with an 
immense cobra de capello entwined about him, 
the whole resting on the petals of an open 
lotus flower — all cut out of solid rock — and 
made to appear as though floating on the 
surface of the water in the midst of a tank. 
Women were offering rice and flowers in con- 
nection with their morning devotions. There 
were a series of other tanks close by, built 
over the beds of springs and so constructed as 
to let the overflowing water pass off throuo-h 
figured stone spouts in graceful streams from 
one tank into another. 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 127 

put foot in his dominions again, provided 
as His Excellency was by the Almighty with 
a climate that was fatal to this rabid pariah. 

It was owing to this -unhealthy, polluted 
state of the city that we disliked much to 
frequent the bazars, streets and shops, though 
each time we went we saw some new and 
exquisite carving, some temple or other ob- 
ject of interest that incited us to go again, 
and each time we returned we had a fit of 
nausea. 

The carvings of Khatmandu are certainly 
the most elaborate and profuse of any to be 
found in the world. Not only are the temples 
and palaces covered with carvings, but even 
private dwellings, including often the door- 
ways of the meanest hovels are loaded with a 
degree of ornamentation that is simply over- 
whelming. 

There are peacocks with outspread tails, 
griffins, snakes, fruits and flowers, gods and 
goddesses, delicate lattice work, and screens 
to represent the most graceful artistic designs, 
looking at a distance like gossamer lace that 
might be marred by the slightest breeze. 



128 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

These carvings, however, have one most 
objectionable feature, they are too often dis- 
figured by the most outrageously obscene 
representations, the reason assigned for such 
gross exhibitions of indecency being some oc- 
cult charm, or some mysterious, magical in- 
fluence they have for warding off evil ! 

All carvings (except a few in stone) are 
made in the splendid sal wood brought up 
from the Terai forests and are the handiwork 
of a class of artisans who are paid but three or 
four pence (eight cents) a day, whose ranks are 
growing rapidly thin for want of encourage- 
ment and patronage, a fact that the Nepal 
Government should at once take note of and 
remedy before too late, seeing that the public 
taste is degenerating so that the present re- 
quirements are for a style of orn«amentation 
that at the best is a poor class of painting, 
appearing on the buildings more like im- 
mense gaudy daubs than anything artistic. 

The most hideous object we saw or photo- 
graphed was an immense stone carved image 
of Bhairub, an unmistakable god of death that 
might well stand tc^ personify cholera. This 




BLOOD-THIRSTY GOD BHAIRUB. 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 129 

monster is dancing on a prostrate figure, and 
seems to be surrounded by an atmosphere of 
skulls. He stands close to the king's city 
palace, in the midst of the central bazar, and 
is built into a solid masonry wall, very near 
another important deity called Hanuman or 
the monkey god. 

While picturing Bhairub, surrounded by an 
inquisitive crowd that almost crushed us and 
our camera in their eager curiosity, which we 
always did our best to gratify, we were think- 
ing of another and more serious crowd that 
used to gather about this fiendish monster in 
years happily now past, when human victims 
were dragged into his presence and decapi- 
tated to satisfy his supposed blood-thirstiness 
and thereby stay the ravages of an epidemic, 
or ward off some impending public calamity! 

Thanks to British influence, and to the late 
Sir Jung Bahadur's enlightened views, the 
god Bhairub has to content himself nowadays 
with the sacrifice of buffaloes and goats, 
whose heads and horns, according to the pre- 
vailing custom in Nepal, are nailed up so as to 
adorn the lintels and doors of the neighboring 



130 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

shrines. In all sacrifices the blood only is 
used about the deities while the flesh is taken 
away and eaten. 

Close to where we fixed our camera was an 
enormous copper bell, suspended from four 
stone pillars standing on a high stone plat- 
form, that might claim twin-ship with the 
great one at the Kremlin in Moscow, and 
would do credit to any foundry of modern 
times. But it would be a tedious undertaking 
to describe all the objects that are here 
crowded together around the King's city 
palace, overtopped by the gilded and burnished 
tapering pagoda-temples, whose roofs of 
solid polished plates of brass and copper were 
dazzling in the sunlight the most noteworthy 
of all being Taleju, built by Raja Mahindra 
Malla, A. D. 1 549. I therefore hasten to that 
feature of the bazar — its shops — that from 
business motives interested us. 

We had to confess to being disappointed in 
these establishments. They were smaller and 
inferior to those in places of less importance 
in India. The goods, too, were of less va- 
riety. There were Manchester (England) 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 13 L 

sheetings and prints, Birmingham cutlery 
and hardware of the cheaper, coarser sorts, 
and brimstone matches. 

The country-made articles were few and of 
rough description, such as woolen and cotton 
cloth, brass and ironware, copper bells, and 
good, tough, indifferently -bleached paper, 
made by hand, in sheets not quite a yard 
square, out of the bark of a species of the 
Daphne. 

Each sheet cost a cent, or halfpenny, and 
even if bought in quantities would not be 
much less. It equalled in strength our best 
parchment, was coarser and thicker, and was 
used by everybody, including the Govern- 
ment, for their correspondence, business rec- 
ords and official documents. 



132 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 



CHAPTER XV. 

CURIOUS RACES AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS. 

Of the people met in the streets each had to 
the practised eye his distinctive mark in dress, 
cast of features and language, showing the 
race to which he belonged. 

There were Hindoos — and under this head 
may be reckoned first and foremost the domi- 
nant race of the Gurkhas — and the lower castes 
of Magars and Gurungs. 

Next may be mentioned the Bhuddists — the 
Newars, Bhuteas, Limbus, Keratis, and Lep 
chas, and, if we except the Newars, all are a 
dirty, ugly lot, with very strong Mongolian 
type of features. 

Last, and least, are the Mahomedans, com- 
posed of Cashmeri, Kabuli and Irani (Persian) 
.traders, hardly numbering a thousand. 

Of all the above named races, the most nu- 
merous are the Newars — a mild, industrious, 




LAMA DOCTOR AND HIS HOCUS FOCUS. 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 133 

good-natured people, the owners of the soil, 
before the Gurkhas invaded their rights and 
dispossessed them, a full century ago. 

They are the chief traders, agriculturists 
and mechanics of Nepal. Their women strike 
a stranger as very religiously inclined, for 
they are to be seen on various days visiting 
Symbhunath and other shrines in crowds, 
equally believing in Bhuddism and Hindoo- 
ism. They are quite light in complexion and 
of symmetrical features, while a pleasant cus- 
tom prevailing among them (even to some ex- 
tent among the men) is the wearing of roses 
and other flowers in their hair, which is always 
gathered up and tied into a long knot upon 
the top of their heads. 

The women of the other classes wear it plait- 
ed down their backs, ending with a red tassel. 
All the women have more freedom than their 
northern India sisters, in that they are allowed 
to go in public without being closely veiled, 
though many wind a white sheet around them 
outside of their clothing, reaching from head 
to foot. 

The best dressed people as a class are the 



134 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

Gurkhas, of good regular features, but gener- 
ally of diminutive stature, though wiry and 
strong. They do not take kindly to work of 
any sort, being essentially a military race. 
They claim to be Rajputs by descent, having 
been driven out of Rajputana, in Central 
India, by the great Mahomedan conquerors. 

The Princes themselves trace their lineage 
directly back to the Royal house of Oodey- 
pore. Their language is Parbatiya, a modern 
dialect of Sanscrit, and written in that charac- 
ter, while that of the Newars is quite another 
language, and written in a different char- 
acter. 

Polygamy is allowed and practised by the 
well-to-do, though a widow cannot remarry 
among the Gurkhas, while the Newars do not 
object. Early child-marriages are in vogue. 
While we were there the present little king, 
ten years of age, was having his nuptials ar- 
ranged for, we were told, to one not much over 
half his years, and the marriage actually took 
place after we came away. 

All the people seem to eat flesh of some 
kind, even that of buffalo and wild pig. In 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 135 

this the Hindoos differ from their more south- 
ern brethren. It seems strange that although 
the buffalo could be killed and eaten, the very 
idea of beef, as we understand it, is perfectly- 
abhorrent to them, and the killing of a cow is 
ranked as murder of the first degree, and 
punishable with death. 

Among our instructions from the Resi- 
dency, we were to give no offence in this re- 
spect, though this caution was quite unneces- 
sary, as we had long ago learned the lesson to 
respect the religious prejudices of all nations. 
Rice is their staple diet. Of vegetables, too, 
they have a variety, and are particularly fond 
of radishes fermented by exposure to the sun. 
Thus prepared, the stuff keeps for a long time, 
and is called Sinki, though it might more ap- 
propriately bear another name similar in 
sound, on account of its searching and offen- 
sive odor. 

The lower classes drink a liquor which they 
distill from rice, called Rakshi. The upper 
classes are forbidden this indulgence, on pain 
of losing caste. Notwithstanding all injunc- 
tions to the contrary, the traffic in imported 



136 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

Spirits — English brandy, French wines and the 
like — pays well, showing that somebody takes 
kindly to intoxicating beverages, caste or no 
caste. It seems a thousand pities that the 
influence of the white man tends to increase 
the drinking habits of all natives with whom 
he comes in contact. It is a well-known fact 
that the youthful members of the Gurkha no- 
bility, who are sent down to Calcutta for their 
education under European masters, return 
victims to the craze for the strongest foreign 
liquors, imported brandy being their chief 
drink. 

Tea drinking is very popular with all who 
can pay for the luxury, the tea used being im- 
ported in pressed bricks, brought all the way 
by caravans from China via Thibet. Here 
is a market for which the India tea merchant 
might compete. 

Education and schools are not yet estimated 
at their full value, but there is a growing de- 
mand for them, and the Nepal Government 
has more than one Baboo from the Calcutta 
University to take charge of quite a large 
school (in a fine long brick building facing the 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 137 



parade ground), composed chiefly of young 
princes and children of the upper classes. 

Every scrap of available ground in the val- 
ley of Nepal is cultivated to exhaustion, being 
put under heavy contribution to yield its ut- 
most to support a population already too large 
for its limited area to sustain. 

Even the mountain sides are called upon to 
contribute a share, by having the fields car- 
ried in terraces some distance upwards towards 
the summit, as already observed. 

There are, to be sure, half a dozen other 
valleys among the adjacent mountains, which 
afford valuable assistance, and send in a good 
share of their products to the city, but they 
are all small, the largest being Noakot, and as 
it is lower than Nepal, it produces, on account 
of its higher temperature, the fruits raised in 
India. Its oranges are excellent, grown on 
the banks of the Trisul Gunga, which flows 
through the bottom of the valley, and lower 
down bears the name Gunduk. No European 
is allowed to cross this stream. 

I might mention here that the elevation of 
the Nepal valley is estimated at 4,5CX) feet 



138 ON INDIA'S FRONTIER. 

above sea level, with an average annual rain- 
fall of 5 5 inches. The thermometer falls only 
now and then in winter as low as twelve de- 
grees below the freezing point ; and rarely ex- 
ceeds, in the hottest season, 8o° Fahrenheit. 
Thus the winters are mild and the summers 
never uncomfortably hot. 

Owing to the scarcity of land, every field is 
made to yield two and three crops a year, 
consisting chiefly of rice, wheat, Indian corn, 
radishes, garlics, potatoes and red pepper. A 
spot was pointed out to us where cardamom 
{Alpinia cardamomuni) also was raised. The 
place is half a dozen miles to the south of 
the city, where through the religious zeal of 
some Hindoos getting the better of their 
judgment they had in memory of Nasick 
and Trimbuck, places of sanctity down near 
Bombay, located there a fresh source of the 
great Godavery river, close to which were 
several large flourishing gardens of carda- 
moms, the property of the State and which 
yielded the Government considerable revenue. 

The general method of preparing the soil in 
Nepal is of the most rudimentary kind, and 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 139 

though, the farmers believe in enriching their 
fields by a regular system of manuring we 
noticed that tillage was limited to digging 
the ground by hand with pickaxes — very rarely 
did they make use of ploughs, which are of 
the most primitive kind. 

Seeing the Nepal valley is thus taxed to its 
utmost by the unceasing rotation of crops, 
flocks and herds are scarce. Poultry, however, 
is reared in large quantities, in which connec- 
tion the great pains taken with the raising of 
ducks amused and interested us. Every 
morning the peasantry in their trips to their 
fields would carry their quacking families, dis- 
tributed in baskets suspended from the ends 
of a bamboo resting on the shoulders of either 
man or woman. On reaching their feeding 
grounds they would let them out to pasture, 
and at evening drive them back into the bas- 
kets, often with a good deal of trouble and 
delay — a sight that caused us many a laugh 
■ — and then swinging the pole across their 
shoulders, which provoked a most noisy chat- 
tering among the fowls, they trudged home 
with them ! 



140 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

Slavery exists in Nepal. The number of 
people thus held in bondage we were told 
falls not far short of 30,000, though we doubt 
the accuracy of so high an estimate. All 
well-to-do families possess slaves, and the 
highest classes own great numbers of both 
sexes. They seem to be exclusively used 
for domestic work. Most of the slaves are 
such by descent , their forefathers having been 
so for generations. They are not imported 
from any other country, while their ranks are 
augmented at times by fresh additions from 
free families, who are brought into servitude 
as a punishment for misdeeds and political 
crimes. 

Women slaves sell for Rs. 150 to Rs. 250 or 
;^i2 to ;^20 ($100), men slaves for a little less. 
Any slave having a child by her master can 
have her freedom. Both sexes are treated 
leniently, and with consideration, rendering 
them content with their bondage, 

This whole system, however, has a most de- 
moralizing effect on account of the women 
slaves and their debasement. 

For a counteracting influence, as supposed by 




LAMA OS. BHUDDIST PRIEST AT HIS DEVOTIONS. 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 141 

some, each family has its own guru or Brahmin 
priest, like a private chaplain. This office is 
hereditary ; at the same time there are thou- 
sands of this priestly profession idling about 
the city attached to this or that deity, fed at 
the expense of the State and given free quar- 
ters. 

I conversed at some length with one of this 
sanctimonious class in his own language — 
Mahrathi — to his great surprise. He came 
from a village near Satara of the Bombay 
Presidency and tramped as a bairagi — re- 
ligious mendicant — from shrine to shrine, 
covering a distance of 3,000 miles in two years. 
By that time he had reached this sacred spot, 
where he meant to end his days, clothed by 
public charity and fed from the Government 
bounty. 

In addition to the bona fide priests, a number 
assuming their garb, and in other w^ays re- 
ligiously disguised as Bhikshus, etc., find 
shelter here from the outside world, even 
though they may be suspected or are real crim- 
inal characters, fleeing from impending justice, 
and unless the Nepal Government is asked to 



142 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

search for this or that particular one, all such 
find an asylum here and no questions asked. 

This was particularly the case with numbers 
during the Indian mutiny in 1857, when 
among the fugitives came also the Nana of 
Bithdur — Nana Sahib, of odious fame — having 
made clean his escape to the Terai forests. 
He did not get further, however, as he was over- 
taken by a deadlier foe than the British rifle, 
and was hastened by the ghastly jungle fever 
to his still more ghastly account. This was 
stated to us as a fact by General Kadar Nur 
Singh, and hence the failure ever to find a 
trace of the rebel chief in spite of the hand- 
some bounty placed on his head. His widow 
lived in a large comfortable house, pointed out 
to us, close to Sir Jung Bahadur's palace, and 
was allowed a monthly stipend by the Nepal 
State until she died in 1886. 

The head of all this large religious commu- 
nity is the Raj Guru, or Archbishop, a very 
wealthy, influential man, possessor of immense 
estates, and of a liberal income from the State. 
He lives in princely style and wears the most 
costly jewels. We met him more than once 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 143 

driving out in a fine two-horse English-built 
carriage, with many attendants. 

Thus, with the spiritual wants of the people 
looked after, their physical weaknesses are at- 
tended to by a class calledWaids (or Waidya — 
doctors), proficient in native drugs ; but there 
is no public hospital, nor a place for dispens- 
ing medicines to the people. To this I should 
make the exception of the good work done by 
the Residency surgeon, who has been con- 
stant in doing his best to make up for this sad 
want, while he spared no efforts and incurred 
much danger by his exposures during the re- 
cent severe cholera epidemic laboring in or- 
der to mitigate its ravages. 

He has a neat little hospital in the rear of 
his house, where the sick are daily treated, 
among whom we noticed many afflicted with 
the disfiguring complaint, so prevalent in the 
Himalayas, of goitre (hideous swellings on the 
neck). Others we saw were principally Bhu- 
teas, who had come miles from over the Hi- 
malayas to be vaccinated, having suffered 
fearfully from the scourge of small-pox. 
These had great faith in being inoculated — a 



144 ON INDIA 'S FBONTIER. 

belief not so well shared in by the other East- 
ern classes to their own hurt. 

Justice is fairly administered, while the 
very severe and cruel punishments in vogue 
years ago are now abolished. There is no 
undue waste of time over technicalities, no 
exasperating formalities, no expensive fees, 
no disagreeing juries, and no devouring law- 
yers. The case is stated, the decision given, 
the decree executed. Capital punishment is 
resorted to only in cases of murder, rebellion, 
treason and the like, while women and Brah- 
mins are degraded and imprisoned for life, 
these being the extreme penalties of the law 
for them. 

Cases of conjugal infidelity, happily not fre- 
quent, are treated by the Newars lightly, but 
the Gurkhas punish such conduct very severely. 

The Maharajah is virtually the Chief Justice 
and the head of the Nepal Court, and to his 
decision are referred all important cases by 
the magisterial judges, who, however, in all 
other minor matters, take affairs into their 
own hands. The laws of primogeniture pre- 
vail in Nepal as they do in India. 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 145 

The one thousand and one taxes, which eat 
into the vitals of more enlightened States, are 
quite unknown here. Every family pays to 
the Government, as their share of the land 
revenue to be collected, one-half of the pro- 
duce they raise. With the other half they are 
able to supply all their few wants and to live 
a life of contentment. 

After this divergence, occupying no more 
time, however, than we spent in our interest- 
ing lofty perch at the top of the Dharera, 
above the smells and noxious gases of the 
streets, we will return to point out just two 
more objects — Thapathali and Narayen Hitti ; 
the former the extensive palace of the late Sir 
Jung Bahadur, and the latter the palace, or 
rather collection of palaces, of the King^ 
Prime Minister and Raj Guru. 

Both palaces are outside of the city walls ; 
the first named is located near the apex formed 
by the junction of the Bagmati and Vishnu- 
mati; the other in quite the opposite direc- 
tion, between the Residency and parade 
ground. The latter is much too crowded, and 
on account of its hemmed-in location does not 



146 ON INDIA'S FRONTIER. 

show to any advantage, though some of the 
buildings are five and six stories high, while 
Thapathali is better situated and makes an 
imposing appearance. 

It used to contain, in the days of its late en- 
lightened lord, four large public rooms thrown 
open to visitors, where was an exceedingly in- 
teresting collection of Chinese, Thibetian and 
Nepalese curiosities, together with a unique 
and varied assortment of shikar (hunting) tro- 
phies, all arranged alongside of European 
articles, from chandeliers and pianos to me- 
chanical toys and chromo-lithographs. 

None of the above palaces, though ranking 
first in importance at Khatmandu, have any 
of the fine quaint carvings showing the de- 
teriorated taste of the present age, which 
make so many of the older structures, even of 
the commonest sort, so pleasing and interest- 
ing ; and what is worse, these royal structures 
are great rambling brick buildings — without 
any pretense to architectural beauty, covered 
entirely with whitewash, which but for the 
cleanly appearance, outrages one's feelings. 

One great improvement that could be readily 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 147 



undertaken, and which would contribute much 
towards beautifying and making attractive 
the above palaces, would be the construction 
of fountains (they have nothing- of the kind), 
fed by water brought easily from a neighbor- 
ing stream. 

This water could at the same time be util- 
ized for drinking purposes, and, if distributed 
in aqueducts over the city, would at once dis- 
place the contaminated stuff drunk by the 
people from the polluted city wells and from 
the equally polluted streams, at once lessening 
the death rate. 



148 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

IMPRESSIVE INTERVIEW WITH THE MAHARAJAH. 

But our time is up, and we must hasten to 
12 o'clock breakfast at our kind host's, the 
doctor's, and after that get ready for the in- 
terview appointed with the Maharajah for that 
afternoon. 

It was suggested that the Maharajah would 
send a horse or conveyance for me, but I sent 
word to decline this, as the doctor wanted to 
see the Maharajah himself on some business 
and offered very kindly to take me with him 
in the Resident's carriage. On the way the 
doctor warned me not to be too sanguine 
about the interview, adding that the Maha- 
rajah, after the first formalities, might say only 
a few words, and that ten minutes would be 
as much time as he would care to allow for 
our call. 

We went through two or three gateways, 




GENERAL RUNUDIP SING. 
The Assassinated Piime Minister. 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 149 

passing sentries with drawn swords and load- 
ed muskets at each, and then came to the 
palace entrance proper, though there was 
nothing to indicate this especially. Here we 
dismotmted, went through a room curtained 
off, and entered an open court, perhaps a 
hundred feet each way, around which the pal- 
ace had been built several stories high in 
the form of a square. This court contained 
only a few plants. Walking across to the 
other side we were at once ushered into the 
large audience hall fitted up with English fur- 
niture, chandeliers, paintings and European 
ornaments. 

Here, surrounded by quite a staff of brightly 
uniformed officials, all decked out in brilliants 
and with rich plumed turbans and helmets 
sat the Maharajah, General Runudip Singh. 
He at once rose, came forward, pleasantly 
shook hands (his were encased in white 
French kid gloves) and asked us to take seats, 
one on either side of him. 

The officers arranged themselves in chairs 
in a semicircle on each side of us. He looked 
like a man of sixty with a decided will of his 



150 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

own ; sharp eyes and a firm lip, but to judge 
from all accounts not at all equal to his 
brother, the late Sir Jung Bahadur, in abili- 
ties or libesral ideas. He was not in uniform 
as his officers were, but in a plain suit of 
English pattern, the coat buttoning up to 
the top, patent-leather boots, and a fine rich 
cap. 

He asked me about the journey up, how 
I liked his country, and finally my object 
in coming. I replied to all these inquiries to 
his apparent satisfaction. I should have pre- 
ferred speaking only in Hindoostani as the 
Prime Minister understood that language and 
afterwards we did converse together in this 
manner, but at first I was obliged to speak in 
English (not a word of which the prince 
understood) while his nephew, a most intel- 
ligent man, General Khudgo Sham Shere 
Jung, educated at the Doveton College, Cal- 
cutta, interpreted to his uncle. 

Instead of the doctor's ten minutes inter- 
view, the old Maharajah seemed to warm up 
the more he plied me with questions, until 
dispensing with interpreters and resorting 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 151 

directly to Hindoostani himself he kept me 
busy talking- for nearly an hour. 

He showed me a most profusely carved 
bedstead inlaid with tusks, artificial eyes, 
and worked up into elaborate designs, and 
wanted to know if the mechanics of England 
or America could turn out such an article as 
that. I replied I did not think they would 
have the patience to keep working at one bed- 
stead for a couple of years — an answer that 
greatly amused him. He then showed me 
hunting trophies, and finally took me to a 
large, life-sized painting, hanging on the wall, 
of the Burra Maharani (great queen) the 
first of his two wives. 

I had with me at the time a copy or two of 
the "Scientific American " and of the " Ameri- 
can Exporter." These the prince asked to look 
over and seemed very much interested in so 
large and varied an assortment of illustrations; 
one thing that especially pleased his fancy 
was a large drawing of some fine cows — the 
" Holstein-Friesian Cattle " — such cows as that 
he said were worth having, and wished me to 
arrange at once to get out a few for him ! 



152 ON INDIA'S FRONTIER. 

At the close of our call I asked for leave to 
go about, and visit his officials and the mer- 
chants, and that they be permitted to see me. 
This was no sooner asked than granted. I 
then intimated the hope of seeing him again 
soon, as I wished to talk with him further about 
business, and about certain improvements 
that I would like to propose ; such as the in- 
troduction of pure water into the city, etc. In 
response to this he gladly gave me permission 
to call again and discuss the projects sug- 
gested. 

I little dreamed then what an awful ca- 
lamity awaited him within a week from 
that time, and that I should never see him 
again. 

Our interview ended with the usual ''pan 
supari" or betel-nut — seed of the areca palm 
done up with catechu, cloves, cardamoms and 
wet lime in a narcotic leaf of the Piper Betel, 
whose folds are pinned together by a clove, 
and the whole wrapped up in silver foil and 
made just large enough to go into the mouth. 
This was further supplemented by the pull- 
ing out of handkerchiefs and the dropping 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 153 

on them of a little attar of roses, oftener rose 
water simply and not attar. 

Feeling encouraged by the pleasant im- 
pression I had received of the Maharajah, I 
went about making acquaintances in the city 
at the same time that I was planning to ob- 
tain another day when I should call again 
on the prince by royal permission. 

Here it occurs to me to say, how often and 
often has the thought come up, in my many 
wanderings into the remote unfrequented 
Eastern corners of the earth, what a grand 
field these places would afford to so many of 
our energetic, adventurous spirits for stretch- 
ing their limbs, aching from ennui, and for air- 
ing their cramped feelings. 

They could gratify their love of Natural 
History or fondness for excitement and the 
chase, instead of pining away at their homes, 
or in luxurious enervating hotels, for some- 
thing novel, for something out of the worn 
threadbare routes of travel, tourists* resorts 
and fashionable watering places. For want of 
a little information and better employment, 
these idlers fritter away their superfluous time 



154 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

as well as their superfluous cash in wasteful 
ignorance and chafing monotony, who could 
do good and get good by coming out to the 
East. I should be only too glad to assist any 
such, wishing to make a trial, with information 
and the results of my experience, assuring 
them that many of these trips would cost less 
than the sums frivolously spent in a few 
weeks at Brighton or Saratoga. 

It was during this time while going around 
Khatmandu that I became greatly interested 
in reading about Bogle and Manning's trips 
into Thibet, and what difficulties they en- 
countered in their efforts to reach its capital, 
Lhassa (said to be three months' journey from 
Nepal where there is a large Nepalese colony), 
all of which is narrated in a most instructive 
and entertaining book edited by Clements 
Markham, which was kindly lent me from the 
Residency library. 

This book presents in unfavorable compari- 
son the present apathy, if not positive hostil- 
ity, of the India Government, as exhibited 
through their Foreign Office, towards all pri- 
vate commercial efforts for opening up con- 
nections with the frontier countries. 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 155 

If there was one thing above others that re- 
flected the greatest credit on India's first 
Viceroy, the Marquis of Hastings, it was this : 
he took a deep personal interest in all efforts 
to extend friendly feeling and develop trade 
dealings with the far north, beyond the con- 
fines of British possessions. 

It will never be known what the Eastern 
world and England lost by the sudden death 
of that most excellent man, the Grand Lama, 
head and autocrat of all Buddhism in far-off 
Pekin, after months of terrible journe5ring 
from his revered city of Lhassa, intensified 
by the strange coincident of the equally sud- 
den death at Calcutta of Bogle, the emissary 
of the Marquis, on the eve of both these noble 
representatives' contemplated conference with 
the Emperor of China in Pekin itself, for the 
promotion of commercial and friendly reci- 
procity. 



156 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE MAHARAJAH'S ASSASSINATION. 

It was while I was reading these intensely 
interesting narratives of Bogle and Manning, 
mentioned in the previous chapter, and while 
seated with the Doctor around a wood fire in 
his drawing-room late one Monday evening, 
that the Jemadar, or head of the Residency 
body guard, consisting of eighty sepoys — • 
native soldiers of India — came rushing in un- 
ceremoniously and whispered audibly : " HuUa 
hai ! ! — there is a massacre — going on in the city 
— there is a massacre — going on in the city ! " 

We looked up incredulously; at which he 
seemed additionally excited, and asked us to 
come outside. We followed. 

The night was perfect, bright with a full 
moon ; but a startling phenomenon at once 
riveted our sight. The whole heavens seemed 
to be streaked with the trails of showers of in- 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 157 

cessant shooting stars (noticed all over India 
and elsewhere, being the annual November 
meteoric display), presaging some great evil 
according to the superstitious, while below 
from the direction of the city, arose the omi- 
nous low din of some great confusion, and the 
tramp as of bodies of troops in motion. 

Then came the sharp, piercing reveille of 
the bugle, followed by the rattle of musketry 
and the deep booming of cannon. There were 
sounds of people running hither and thither, 
shrieks from women, and a great uproar gen- 
erally. All came upon us like a thunderbolt 
out of a cloudless sky, and no one could solve 
the mystery. 

The scenes of violence, passion and cruelty 
enacted that night pass all telling, and 
although the doctor hastened off spies to 
find out the meaning of such commotion, yet 
long before they returned, our pleasant, quiet 
quarters had become a house of refuge for 
those who had a few minutes before been 
reckoned among the highest in the land, re- 
splendent in gems and finery, and whose very 
nod was sufficient to call whole regiments into 
action. 



]58 ON INDIA'S FRONTIER. 

Among the first to come was General Kadar 
Nur Singh. I had met him at my interview 
with the Maharajah, dressed in full, rich uni- 
form ; now he was barely covered with a thin 
suit of under garments, as he rushed up 
breathless and entreated to be sheltered from 
impending death. Close on his heels came 
General Dhoje Nur Singh, the adopted son of 
the Maharajah, and his little boy with him. 
They were in a sad plight and were not at first 
recognized, being woefully changed from their 
appearance as last seen at the palace decked in 
royal robes and ablaze with precious stones. 
Then came in hot haste the brothers. General 
Padum Jung and General Rungbir Jung, sons 
of the late General Jung Bahadur. Last of 
all, after many hair-breadth's escapes, came 
one of the Queens, the second wife of the Ma- 
harajah, called Jetta Maharani,* seated astride 
a little saddle fastened upon the back of one 
of her slave girls (as is customary among all 
Nepal ladies of rank, for they are much averse 
to walking even in their houses). 



* Another Rani called " Chitti Biddi My " was detected just before she 
reached the Residency limits, and ruthlessly carried back and put into 
rigorous confinement. 





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Ik 






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A NEPALESE PRINCESS. 




GENERAL JUGAT JUNG AND WIFE. 
(Killed in the Massacre.) 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 159 

These, with their followers, took up a good 
portion of the Doctor's house, and each one 
had harrowing stories to tell, while one and 
all confirmed the report of the Maharajah's as- 
sassination in his own palace, as he was re- 
clininof, lookinof over official documents. In 
addition to this they reported other deaths 
and claimed that but for the security granted 
them under the shadow of the British flag 
they would have been made away with by a 
cruel faction, simply to further the end of a 
political party. 

Thus, in a few words, is portrayed what had 
been only a repetition of Nepal's previous his- 
tory over and over again ; for either the King 
or Prime Minister had come into power by 
violence and bloodshed, or been deposed and 
brought to an untimely end by the same des- 
perate, cruel practices.* 

We now recalled the rain of blood drops 
shown us at Balaji, and realized with what 
ineffaceable conviction this and the falling 
stars that night would be henceforth associ- 

* The eldest son ol Sir Jung Bahadur, General Jugat Jung, his wife and 
son were the principal persons killed next to the Maharajah, and their bodies 
were carried down unceremoniously to Pashupati and hastily cremated. 



160 ON INDIA 'S FBONTIER. 

ated in the minds of the Nepalese with the 
troubles just happening- ! 

The doctor sent off at once a special mes- 
senger to recall the Resident, although it would 
be nearly a week before he could get back, 
while we noticing an apparently quieter state 
prevailing out of doors, retired to secure some 
sleep as best we could. 

The next morning there was all about us 
a close cordon of Nepalese guards, stationed 
outside the Residency limits. The city seemed 
to be completely under martial law. The 
shops were closed, the streets were as silent 
as death and the fields about were deserted by 
the peasantry. 

Our plans were now all thrown into con- 
fusion and we hardly knew what was best to 
be done. Of course we felt free to walk out, 
and did so, but we could see no one, and as 
the doctor thought we were rash and made 
light of the situation, we stopped going around 
not wishing to give offense to anyone, least of 
all to our kind host. 

A rather long week for us went by. Mean- 
while negotiations had been begun for de- 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 161 

porting down into India the refugees, who 
were still with us. The Resident, too, had 
arrived and we, taking advantage of the lull 
in the political horizon, ventured out on two 
or three short trips. One was to the old 
capital of Patau, close by, which we found to 
be a cleaner city, which is not saying much ; 
and containing many beautiful temples. One 
of stone was particularly fine, situated with a 
number of others highly carved in the central 
square. 

We also made an excursion to the oldest 
capital of all, Bhatgaon, built by Raja 
Anand Malla, A. D. 865, where the streets are 
wider, better paved and cleaner still, than in 
either Patau or Khatmandu, though the town 
is of about the same size as Patau, numbering 
perhaps 35,000. Here the carvings, taken as 
a whole, were the finest, and those on the old- 
est buildings seemed to be the best. 

The old palace was especially handsome 
and had in front of it a tall monolith crowned 
with the brazen figure of the Rajah who built 
it. We found these monoliths in many places 
elsewhere, surmounted with, some long-ap"o 



162 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

defunct hero or mythological winged being 
called a Garud. These figures are put in a 
kneeling posture, generally facing some tem- 
ple, and have a bell-shaped umbrella over 
them, or a brazen snake coiled around them 
with its head extended upward and made to 
overhang the figure. On the snake there sits 
usually a little bird. 

But the temple that interested us most 
at Bhatgaon was the five-storied temple of 
Nyatpola Dewal. None but the priests ever 
enters it. Its long flight of stone steps leading 
up to the masonry platform on which the 
temple proper rests, are lined with figures as 
shown in the illustration. The lowest steps 
are'guarded by two powerful giants, Jayamalla 
and Phalta, peylwans or champion wrestlers 
of the Bhatgaon Court, and said to be each 
stronger than the combined strength of ten 
men. Above them are placed two elephants, 
each stronger than ten of these men. Above 
them are two lions ten times stronger than 
the elephants. Then came two Sarduls or 
grifiins, as much stronger again, and fifth and 
last, above all, comes two goddesses of super- 






NYATPUL 



^,_^HATGAUN'S UOLlEbT SHRINE. 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 163 

natural power called by the euphonious names 
of Byaghrini and Singhrini. 

From Bhatgaon we went up to a place of 
pilgrimage called Mahadeo Pookri, and here 
had a grand view of mount Everest, across a 
sea of valleys about eighty miles off, the near- 
est point from which Europeans as yet have 
gazed upon that giant. Owing to the great 
distance, Everest is somewhat disappointing, 
being not nearly so striking and impressive 
as e/jral nearer peaks. 

The following account taken from the Bom- 
bay Gazette describes a Frenchman's recent 
experience and ideas of Nepal. 

A FRENCH ARCH^OLOGIST IN INDIA. 

This is the fourth letter published under the signature 
of " Gustave le Bon," in Le Temps : — 

Gulf of Bengal, on board the S.S. Sir John Lawrence. 

I find myself returned from the mysterious capital of 
Nepal, which no other Frenchman had yet visited, and, in 
spite of all the pessimist predictions with which I was 
loaded, I have preserved my head upon my shoulders 
without very serious difficulty. 

It is, as everybody knows, only under very exceptional 
circumstances that a European — English or not— is able 
to obtain authority to visit Khatmandu and the principal 



364 ON INDIA'S FRONTIER. 

towns of Nepal ; but then, even when this authority has 
been obtained, it does not necessarily follow that all 
difficulties are removed. To undertake to cross the 
Himalayas in four days, the 170 kilometres which separate 
the last English town, Motihari from Khatmandu, one 
must have — at least a vigor, and a familiarity with 
mountains which no member of our Alpine clubs certainly 
possesses — and a small army of porters. Part of the road 
is done in a sort of palanquin which in shape is exactly 
like a cradle. It is as ugly as it is uncomfortable. The 
reflections one makes during the forty-eight hours you 
spend in this box are only disturbed by the cold baths you 
inevitably receive in your clothes every time it is necessary 
to cross the course of a stream. Arrived at the foot of the 
Himalayas you are squeezed into a sort of bag called a 
dandy — I know not absolutely why — carried by four men, 
by means of crossed poles, and if your porters chance only 
to slip once — no one hears more said of you or them — other- 
wise you arrive all right at Khatamandu. 

In the temporary absence of the English authorities at 
Motihari, I had to recruit — with the aid of a certain very 
dangerous and expensive native magistrate of the name 
of Elphinstone — thirty-three porters who constituted cer- 
tainly the most remarkable collection of rascals that I have 
ever had occasion to see in my travels. The band had 
looted my bag of rupees, and would even have wished to 
seize everything if they hadn't first exposed themselves to 
make acquaintance with the bullets of my revolvers. 
Their trick, the most ingenious, was to abandon me for a 
whole night in an extremely dense forest, and dangerous 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 165 

after sunset on account of tigers, leopards, panthers, 
boars, and savage elephants, which swarm there, as rab- 
bits in a European warren. Had I been devoured, and 
nothing more to account for my disappearance, they would 
have cleared themselves by attributing the accident to 
chance, and looted the rupees. 

Unfortunately for them the protection of the gods baffled 
these perfidious attempts. The wood being too damp for 
me to be able by means of it to make a fire and disperse 
and frighten the ferocious beasts, I had recourse to 
candles, which had never quitted me, and, placed one 
upon the covering of the apparatus mentioned above, I 
then wrote, in order to keep me awake, a little work which 
I had thought of for some time, and which I have sent to 
the Revue Scientifique on a new method of taking observa- 
tions en voyage, and upon the instruments that I would 
employ for this purpose. When the day appeared, one of 
the men of the gang, who had taken shelter in a neighbor- 
ing village, came to see if the tigers had dined on Euro- 
pean cutlets. I imagine it must have proved a very dis- 
agreeable disillusion when, instead of the bag of rupees 
which he expected to carry away, he found himself seized 
by the throat, and felt the barrel of a revolver introduce 
itself into his eye with an injunction to bring back the rest 
of the band within five minutes under pain of having his 
skull fractured. The band returned, a few strokes with a 
walking stick applied vigorously among the lot, with a 
threat of the re-volver upon the first man who would speak 
a word, was sufficient to inspire a salutary fear in all these 
worthy friends. These little incidents of a journey to 



166 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

Nepal, when one has not the English authorities to assist 
you at Motihari, are largely compensated for by the sight 
of the very curious town of Khatmandu, and, above all, 
that of Patan and Bhatgaon. I have already told you of 
the impression produced upon me by the temples at 
Ellora ; those that I experienced on entering Patan were 
even a great deal stronger. The temples of Ellora recall 
more or less definitely to the traveler who has seen India, 
some things already known. The great royal palace of 
Patan or that of Bhatgaon represents, on the contrary, 
forms quite unexpected. There is in these two towns, on 
a surface of a few hundred metres, a collection of temples, 
palaces, and columns, such as might raise the dreams of 
the most fastidious of artists to an ecstacy. We see there, 
temples having the form of immense pyramids, superim- 
posed, the vertices below, placed on the summit of gigantic 
steps, which one might almost believe had been cut by 
giants, covered with monsters, statues, gates of bronze and 
gold, guarded by a legion of fantastic beings. At the first 
sight of these strange marvels, one passes the hand across 
the forehead to know if he is not dreaming. I do not 
know in any other portion of the world among the works 
of men anything so marvellously picturesque. If the de- 
tails of this striking effect are analyzed, you see clearly 
that the architecture of Nepal is formed by the combina- 
tion of elements borrowed from the two countries between 
which it is situated — India and China. The combination 
of these two elements, so different, produces some effects 
absolutely unexpected. Certain columns have a formation 
which we would not be able to include in a classification 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 167 

of any of those known to us ; the same with the windows 
of the houses and their framing. Certain bronze doors of 
the temples or palaces of Nepal are of very remarkable 
workmanship ; but this work is a small thing in comparison 
with that of the wooden columns which generally support 
the first story of the houses. As to form, I know nothing 
in the world more superb, and as to work, the most skillful 
of Parisian artists would be certainly incapable of doing 
better. 

The architecture of Nepal is but little known in Europe, 
and in India only by some photographs due to a photog- 
rapher that the Sovereign made to come from Calcutta to 
his court to execute his portrait and those of his family ; 
but these photographs, on a small scale, do not allow of 
the details of these monuments being seen, which are pre- 
cisely the most essential parts, and only give in reality a 
very vague idea. 

The arrival of a Frenchman in Nepal had greatly 
agitated the inhabitants, and during my sojourn, I had 
absolutely the pleasure of passing in the condition of a 
strange beast, such as a calf with two heads or a bearded 
woman. When I made my photographs and took my 
measurements I had over 2,000 persons round me or 
perched upon the roofs of the houses, entirely engaged in 
observing me. The two soldiers of the guard of the 
sovereign who accompanied me made way by distributing 
to left and right vigorous showers of blows with a baton, 
but the crowd would not resign themselves to go away 
even for a few steps. I finished by paying no attention to 
this mass of valorous people, wno only manifested any 



168 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER, 

concern for me by curiosity without the slightest mark of 
hostility. This curiosity appeared to have spread, besides, 
to all classes of society among the people of Nepal, and to 
judge by the number of personages that the chance — it is 
always wise to attribute to chance the events of which we 
are ignorant of the causes — ^brought about me. In order 
to avoid hurting the susceptibilities of the English Am- 
bassador — the only European authorized to reside at 
Nepal — I had carefully avoided paying a visit to the 
Emperor or any of his generals. 

But most of them placed themselves in my way, and, 
besides, asked me most graciously the same question. 
The affairs of China greatly interest the inhabitants of 
Nepal, who have had many times to defend themselves 
against the armies of the Celestial Empire. Everyone 
knew that there was in the West, a great country called 
France, the Raja of which was at war with China. It was 
therefore evident that, if a Frenchman came to Nepal it 
was to determine the Nepalese Government to declare war 
with China, and thus gain a useful diversion. To essay to 
prove to an inhabitant of Nepal that a European could 
wish to come from so distant countries and encounter the 
difficult passes of the Himalayas merely to visit theit 
mountains is completely impossible. 

The geographical situation of Nepal, which ought to be 
considered as a large valley situated among the highest 
mountains of the world, has always been dependent on 
her two redoubtable neighbors — the English of India and 
the Chinese of Thibet. It has valiantly defended its in- 
dependence in many battles, and all that England has 



ON INDIA'S FRONTIER. 169 

been able to obtain after a bloody war has been the 
authorization of having an ambassador at Khatmandu. 
Except this Ambassador and his doctor no European has 
the right to penetrate to the towns of Nepal without the 
formal authority of the Nepalese Government, and this 
authorization is only very exceptionally accorded. The 
English Ambassador himself is only allowed to travel in a 
very limited area, and the greatest portion of Nepal is 
rigorously interdicted to him. 

In spite of its isolation, Nepal knows perfectly all that 
takes place in the world. The rich lords have their sons 
at the Calcutta University, where they learn to speak 
English, carry eyeglass and jacket. The eyeglass and 
jacket are quite exceptional in the suite of the Emperor. 
A happy chance brought the young Sovereign in my way ; 
it embraced also his suite and all the ladies of his court. 
He was dressed in a violet mantle and his servitors had 
over their heads the insignia of the royal power, a parasol. 
The ladies followed in palanquins or hammocks covered 
with red silk disposed in a manner so as entirely to con- 
ceal their faces. There was not one, nevertheless, who 
passed with her head quite concealed, but looked to see 
what this stranger was like, who had been intriguing in the 
country for some time. Fine fellows, the Nepalese of the 
Imperial family, in spite of the evident mixture of yellow 
blood, and the marks which they paint upon their forehead. 
Few of the inhabitants of Nepal are able to boast of their 
good looks. 

My letter is already very long, and I have spoken but 
little about the inhabitants of Nepal. I will return to the 



170 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

subject in a future correspondence, if the vessel which 
carries me arrives safely in port. It contains five hundred 
Hindus, who have saved pice by pice for a long time the 
sum necessary to make a pilgrimage to this celebrated 
temple of Juggeinath, where, unfortunately for them, they 
are no longer permitted to be crushed under the car of 
their idol. This interdiction alone seems to throw a gloom 
over their happiness. Let us not sneer at them too much. 
Nowhere else in India does man risk his life for a chimera 
so vain as that of the idols of the temple of Juggernath. 

The political atmosphere being now a little 
cleared, we began seriously to think about 
getting back to India, but wished before do- 
ing so to pay our farewell respects to the new 
regime., consisting of General Bhir Sham Sh ere 
Jung for new Maharajah, and his brother, Gen- 
eral Khudgo Sham Shaw Jung, as Comman- 
der-in-Chief. There were a few other changes 
made, and positions filled, but so far as the 
little king was concerned, he was in no way 
affected by the disturbance, and was con- 
ducted about the city on an elephant just 
after the assassinations to show the people 
that their Rajah was all right. 

The new Prime Minister appointed a time 
for me to call at the city palace, and I had a 




Nepal's prime minister, general bir sham shere jung. 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 171 

pleasant chat with him there, and with his 
brother, General Khudgo Sham Shaw Jung. 
The latter will be remembered as the one who 
kindly interpreted for me, and whom I have 
already described in my interview with the 
late Maharajah. He is a very energetic, affa- 
ble and enterprising officer. He is the moving 
spirit in the new Government, and to him the 
Maharajah, though older, defers. Under 
these two brothers' influence the Nepal Dur- 
bar, or Court, bids fair to adopt improvements 
and introduce reforms that will benefit the 
State. 

To my several suggestions as to matters 
most important to take hold of first, they 
listened with a spirit of approval, but told me 
that owing to the troubles they had just 
passed through, and to the necessity of giving 
their undivided attention to important State 
questions, they could not undertake anything 
of the nature I proposed, until they had made 
themselves secure in their new positions — an 
answer that admitted of no argument, How- 
ever, at the special request of General Khudgo 
Sham Shaw Jung and his brother, I agreed to 



173 ON INDIA'S FB ON TIER. 

make personally a survey of what would be a 
feasible project for the city water-works, and 
placed the results of my estimate in their 
hands, with their promise not to let the matter 
sleep. 

Feeling now that should any good come of 
our trip to Nepal, even if it had not profited 
us in any business way, the thought of having 
at least possibly benefited the State in some 
incidental way should console us for what we 
had undergone ; and seeing that nothing further 
could be definitely accomplished in the pres- 
ent excitement and uncertainty that prevailed, 
we took our leave of the Maharajah and his 
brother with pleasant assurances of friendship, 
since repeated in letters. 

In closing this chapter it may be well to re- 
fer to the old adage that history repeats itself, 
and with special rapidity in Nepal. General 
Khudgo Sham Shaw Jung, the new com- 
mander-in-chief, and who was the mainstay of 
his brother, the new Maharajah, and the prin- 
cipal factor in putting the old Maharajah, his 
uncle, out of the way, was himself obliged to 
flee the country not many months later in 




GENERAL KHUDGO SHAM SHERE JUNG. 
(Brother of Prime Minister.) 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 173 

order to save his own head endangered by the 
jealous suspicions of his brother, Gene'^al 
Bhir Sham Shere Jung, whom he had been 
instrumental in making Maharajah. 



174 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

RETURNING TO CALCUTTA. 

After bidding the Princes and many native 
friends we had made good-bye, we, with many 
regrets, bade farewell to our most hospitable 
host the Doctor, and esteemed friend the Resi- 
dent, and I take this opportunity to state that 
more kindly-disposed officials in all the circle of 
those among whom I have been forced to cast 
my lot I have failed to find. 

I wish I could say the same of certain others 
who, though representatives of the India For- 
eign Office in different places visited by the 
writer, were an3'thing but a credit to that de- 
partment ; who belied their professions and 
positions, who assumed most haughty, over- 
bearing airs, who might well be asked, " I say, 
stranger, are you anybody in particular I " who 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 175 

used the prerogatives of their office to thwart 
you, Avhether traveler, sportsman, scientist* 
or commercial agent, who were as disgusting 
in their attempts to bully all those within 
their reach, as they were obsequious toadies to 
anybody with a title ; who felt as uneasy at 
your presence as they were jealous of your 
success. 

These men, though engaged on a generous 
salary to represent a great, liberal, civilizing 
commercial nation, might well be supposed to 
be the under-paid hirelings of an exclusive 
despotism ; whose knowledge of the world 
and its requirements were as contracted as 
they were ridiculous ; who were as wanting in 
brain, as they were deficient in the attributes 
of a gentleman ; who were as lacking in their 
sympathy with the natives they governed, as 
in their knowledge of the language of the 
country they ruled; who thought they saw 
a Russian spy in every traveling foreigner 

* We met a gentleman just after our return to Calcutta, who, as the 
representative of a scientific society in Europe, had laid all his plans to go 
over a good portion of the ground we had traversed. He communicated 
with the authorities and managed after many weeks' waiting to get their 
permission. On the strength of this he started, but was suddenly stopped 
on the border and the permission arbitrarily revoked. He of course had no 
alternative but to retrace his steps. 



176 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

tliotigh a fellow countryman ; when they could 
not distinguish a Brahmin from an Afghan 
nor a palm tree from a pine.* 

In this connection I am reminded of an 



* The following is an extract from the Bombay Gazette : 
" Lord Roseberry was the principal speaker at a recent banquet to the 
Indians and Colonials by the Edinburgh Corporation. In proposing the 
toast of ' Our Colonial and Indian Empire ' he welcomed the visitors to Scot- 
land, and expressed pleasure that the colonists should make themselves 
acquainted with the great historic centres of the Empire. If (he continued) 
I were a legislator, a despotic legislator, such as legislators have been, and I 
had to frame laws for this great Empire, one of the first that I should frame 
would be this, that neither in Great Britain, nor in India, nor in the colonies 
should any man hold high and important office without knowing something 
of the Empire with which he was called upon to deal. (Cheers ) I would 
make men who wish to be British Ministers travel in the colonies and in 
India (cheers), and I would make those who desire to hold office, to hold 
high office in the colonies and in India, see something of the islands from 
which so much of their inspiration at any rate is derived. (Cheers.) We 
used, in former days, not so very long ago, to have government by test in all 
its departments. There was a test for every office. It was I think, a faulty 
test, because it dealt with conscience, and that is not a fair test ; but I 
should be willing to re-enact government by test, for it is to test whether 
men knew those great countries, those vast regions, with which every man is 
called upon to deal. (Cheers.) I have done some part of that work myself, 
and I hope that it will not be long — indeed, a short time — before I visit that 
Indian Empire, which to all of us must be supremely interesting (cheers), as 
including not merely great historic memories which adorn and strengthen 
the character of this nation, but as containing a vast majority of the subjects 
of the British Empire, and as representing so considerable a key to our 
foreign policy, and moreover, as representing a great acquisition — an Empire 
within an Empire, which we are determined to maintain, whatever force 
may be arrayed against us. (Cheers.) We know something of those forces; 
we learn something of them every day ; and it is for us in these days to 
show that the character of the nation which conquered India has not dete- 
riorated, and that it is determined, in spite of whatever may happen, to 
maintain it."" 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 177 



official* who was stationed at Bagdad ; he was 
a poor specimen of an Englishman and a still 
poorer consular officer who did not understand 

* The story of this official reminds us very forcibly of some Imes of Rud- 
yard Kipling touching a similar character. 

STUDY OF AN ELEVATION, IN INDIAN INK. 

This ditty is a string of lies, 

But — how the deuce did Gubbins rise. 

Potiphar Gubbins, C. E., 
Stands at the top of the tree, 
And I muse in my brd on the reasons that led 
To the hoisting of Potiphar G. 

Potiphar Gubbins, C. E., 
Is seven years junior to me ; 
Each bridge that he makes he either buckles or breaks, 
And his work is as rough as he. 

Potiphar Gubbins, C. E., 
Is coarse as a chimpanzee, 
And I can't understand why you gave him your hand, 
Lovely Mehitabel Lee. 

Potiphar Gubbins, C. E., 
Is dear to the Powers that Be, 
For they bow and they smile in an affable style, 
Which is seldom accorded to me. 

Potiphar Gubbins, C. E., 
Is certain as certain can be. 
Of a highly-paid post which is claimed by a host 
Of Seniors— including me. 

Careless and lazy is he. 
Greatly inferior to me ; 
What is the spell that you manage so well, 
Commonplace Potiphar G. ? 

Lovely Mehitabel Lee, 
Let me inquire of thee, 
Should I have riz to what Potiphar is, 
Had'st thou been mated to me ? 



178 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

what travelers and commercial agents or 
"■ tradespeople," as he stigmatized them, 
wanted to be " nosing about for," and if he 
could manage it, would have them all sent 
back from his territory. He used the State 
funds placed in his hands, not as they were 
intended, for entertaining, and bringing all 
foreigners in the town together into pleasant 
social intercourse, but to gratify a selfish, 
morbid taste for getting up private dinners 
and parties that cost him but little, in the 
interests of a select few ; claiming that the 
rest, even though his own English country- 
men, were low class and unfit for his immacu- 
late society. He was too great a coward to 
face you openly with his pitiable puerility, at 
the same time much too politic to overstep 
the bounds of his office so as to afford you a 
handle whereby you could criminate him. 
Yet his actions showed that he was not only 
foolishly officious, but at the same time silly 
enough to suspect that every stranger was the 
"everlasting Russian spy." Not only this, 
but he was in the habit of traducing the 
stranger, even if his own countryman, and of 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 179 

making it as Tincomf ortable for him as possi- 
ble. Imagine such a being selected for an 
important office on the Indian Frontier, as 
for example to represent Her Gracious Im- 
perial Majesty Queen Victoria in lovely Cash- 
mere ! Better have ten Russian spies " nosing 
about" than such a timid and apprehensive 
individual for a Resident in that happy valley 
just being thrown open to civilization.^ 

* We extract the following from a leading Bombay paper: -"The Indian 
Witness tells us that a gentleman who holds a Professor's chair in one of 
the Universities in the Southern States, has achieved a very unenviable 
notoriety in America, for refusing to shake hands with a gentleman of 
darker color than his own. He has very properly been removed from his 
appointment, his conduct having awakened great indignation. But two or 
three days before we saw this incident in the Witness, a gentleman, who was 

making a casual call upon us, in referring to the Resident at , told us 

with what indignation he had seen this gentleman openly insult a very dis- 
tinguished native officer at the Court in the same way. The native 

gentleman in question held almost the highest official position in the native 
State. He is a man of refinement and education, and bears an unsullied 
character. Accustomed to meet Englishmen on a footing of courteous 
equality, he held out his hand to welcome the new Resident, in the ordinary 
way of shaking hands, not dreaming that it would be refused, and held it 
out long enough to create embarrassment. Our civilian Resident stiffly in- 
clined his head, and refused to see the Minister's outstretched hand, and the 
latter withdrew it. If Lord Dufferin would like to know the name of this 
Resident and of the gentleman he thus insulted, we will give both. This 
same Resident, we are assured, in spite of the large allowances attached to 
his office, lives absolutely and entirely at the expense of the Court to which 
he is accredited as our representative. Jsot only his horses, but his table, 
his servants (we think) and the whole of his expenses, are paid by the 
Maharajah, with that diffuse hospitality that characterizes Eastern Couris. 
And the vulgar fellow who is not above receiving and profiting by this hos- 
pitality, is too great a man to show the ordinary courtesy of a gentleman, to 
the highest officer in the State, a man more than equal to himself, in all 
probability, in education and ability. We have no doubt that if we were to 



180 <9A INDIA'S FRONTIER, 

Does the Anglo-Indian wonder lie has a bad 
name \ Is the English Government at a loss 
to know why it does not succeed better with 
its civilizing schemes and social reforms ; 
why there is not more harmony between the 
governing classes and the governed ; why 
there is not more in common between the offi- 
cials and their own countrymen in India * even 
when the latter are wielding the most civiliz- 
ing, harmonizing, reforming influences through 
the ramifications of business and commerce ? 

England's Indian frontier to-day would have 
been a wall of adamant against Russian ag- 



ask this gentleman the cause of his rudeness, he would tell us that the 
prestige of his position required to be upheld by him. The Luke and 
Duchess of Connaught both shook the hand of this native gentlt-man 
warmly, as they did the band of every official presented to them. But then 
a Royal Duke cares nothmg for \\\?, prestige, and the civilian does. 

" It may be questioned, we admit frankly, whether ir is wise to m.-tice such 
conduct or to let it pass. We confess that it is strong indignation only that 
leads us to notice it. The native gentleman to whom this insult was offered, 
•g a distmgui. bed graduate of one of our Universities, a man of high 
character also and of very great abilities. Our own feeling in presence of 
such conduct is so strong, that upon satisfactory pruof that the insult was 
really offered, we should requ re this Civilian Resi.ent to make his choice 
between an adequate apology to the gentleman he had i .suited, and retire- 
ment from the public service. Under any circumstances, we should remove 
him from the political line altogether, a career for which he is plainly 
unfitted." 

* It is well known that the last Viceroy of India, Lord Ripon, came very 
near being ingloriously " summoned to his account " through the murderous 
hands of enraged fellow countrymen who whether as commercial men in 
Calcutta or as planters of Darjeeling and Hchar execrated his very name. 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 181 

gression, had slie from the first encouraged 
her merchants to establish business houses, 
with their many connections and agencies, 
throughout that misguided territory, inducing 
the natives and interesting their governments 
to apply their misdirected zeal and to invest 
their misspent capital in good roads and prof- 
itable branches of trade which would have 
enlightened, improved and fraternized this 
now incongruous fermenting mass of hu- 
manity. 

Despite all the obstructions and the per- 
sistent efforts of these incompetent officials, 
who represent the Foreign Office, to smother 
the spread of commerce, some trade at least 
manages to percolate through the Indian 
boundary limits, if the following recent official 
report can be relied upon : 

" Colonel Lockhart's Mission while in Gilgit, Chitral, 
and even further north in Wakhan, found that Manchester 
cotton goods had complete command of the market. Of 
course, the market was a limited one, for the country is 
sparsely inhabited, and the people are poor. English cot- 
ton goods had penetrated to these remote and obscure 
regions, were well known to the people and commanded a 
ready and growing sale. In Gilgit the average value of 



183 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

cotton appears to have been five yards to the rupee. Rus- 
sian cotton seemed to be unknown, and what was not ob- 
tained from English sources was supplied locally or from 
Chinese Kashgar. A curiosity in trade was discovered in 
the fact that American firearms imported by way of Rus- 
sian Turkestan were underselling English weapons 
brought from India. Thus a good revolver which had 
come all the way from Cincinnati, U. S. A., was purchased 
in Chitral for Rs. 15. The people think these arms are of 
Russian manufacture, but the factory stamp discloses 
their true origin." — Extract from the "Bombay Gazette." 

I will not weary my readers with the de- 
tails of our journey back to Ca,lcutta. I will 
simply say that we did not encounter any diffi- 
culty, and got over the ground more rapidly 
than when coming — thanks to the Doctor and 
his fast horses, besides two Bhutea ponies lent 
us by the Nepal Durbar , 

The first day's march brought us to Cisa- 
gurdi, where, as stated, our old friend the 
Havildar did everything for our comfort ; the 
next day brought us to Hetowda, and the 
next to Bechakho. The following day being 
overtaken by a drenching rain in the gloomy 
Terai forest, which wet us to the skin, we 
found shelter in a hut beyond Semrabassa, 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 183 

having for a good share of its roof a thriving 
pumpkin vine. This place we carpeted with 
rice straw, and here we passed the night, feel- 
ing as comfortable as a prince in his palace. 

On the following day we reached the pleas- 
ant bungalow of an Indigo planter at Ruck 
soul, just inside of British territory, and were 
freely offered every hospitality, even his well- 
stocked stable being placed at our disposal. 

That same night we pushed on and reached 
Segowli Railway Station, expecting to make 
ourselves comfortable there with our bedding 
sent on ahead by the kind forethought of our 
planter host. In this, however, we were doomed 
to disappointment, as our coolies had con- 
cluded to ensure for themselves first a good 
night's rest somewhere on the road, no mat- 
ter what became of us, and did not turn up 
till noon of the following day ! 

We had therefore to arrange ourselves on 
some chairs in the railway waiting-room. 
The night proved far too cold for our ordinary 
light clothing, so we placed lanterns under 
our chairs and spread over us several large 
newspapers, as wraps, thereby securing enough 



1 84 ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 

■warmth, from, our improvised stove and paper 
covering to weather the night through fairly 
well. 

It was pleasant to hear again the screech of 
the engine, the rattle of the car wheels, and to 
feel ourselves being whirled along behind steam 
once more. And thus it was while being 
borne back to India's capital, seated in a com- 
fortable railway carriage that we had time to 
go over the dilf erent incidents of our eventful 
journey and came to the conclusion, in ac- 
cordance with the thought suggested at the 
outset of this narrative that all travel had not 
yet lost its romance. 

On our arrival at Calcutta "- we were con- 

* The following appeared in one of the Calcutta dailies the day after Mr. 
Ballantine's arrival in that city : '' We learn that Mr. Henry Ballan;ine, the 
enterprising traveler and explorer, has just arrived at Calcutta, from Nepal. 
As he was the only European at the British Residency in Khatmandu, apart 
from the Residency Surgeon, who was an eye-witness of the troubl s conse- 
quent on the murder of the Maharajah and certain officials there, we fancy he 
could, if he chose, ' a tale unfold.' Probably the proper Government officials 
here already have had an interview with him, but, however that mav be, we 
learn on g6od authority that Mr. Ballantine has be n commissionc-d by the 
new Durbar to make out an estimate for certain improvements for immediate 
execution. If these be really carried out, we can assure the new reghnc that 
no stronger proof could be given to the outside world and to the Indian 
Government of their good intentions and of their sincere resolve to institute 
a reform in that benighted corner of the earth, notorious for generations 
past for its habitations of cruelty. We congratulate Nepal in committing 
to such an enterprising gentlenan any contemplated reforms; for in such 
good hands, they may rest assured of as great success as their wretched 



ON INDIA 'S FRONTIER. 185 



gratulated by friends as if returning from an 
endeavor to discover " tlie Northwest Passage" 
or from looking up traces of the " Franklin Ex- 
pedition," and the questions asked were a de- 
deplorable commentary on the ignorance of 
the capital of India about its important next- 
door neighbor. 

city now stands deplorably in need of ; while we could point Nepal to Japan 
and its present prosperous, independent and highly creditable stand amnn-^ 
civilized nations, as a position worthy and possible of their attainment.' — 
\The Ptiblishers.'\ 



THE KNI). 



I N D EX. 



A 

PAGE 

Agriculture. Exhaustive methods of 137 

Rudimentary cultivation 138 

American firearms 182 

Periodicals 151 

Anglo-Indian officials. How they travel 37 

Their supercilious bearing 174 

Character in general 175-181 

Army. Standing, of Nepal 123 

Needlessly large 124 

Assassination of the Maharajah of Nepal 156 

B 

Bear. An unpleasant meeting 60 

Bhairub. God of Death — stone image 128 

Bhatgaon. The oldest capital. Built A. d. 865 161 

Bimphedi. Delayed at 64 

Bodhnath. A Buddhistic shrine ... 117 

Bogle and Manning's trip into Thibet 154 

Brahmin scribe, on the Havildar's staff 1"] 

British government in India criticised . . .4, 5, 6,81, 154-155 

Manufactures 131-181 

British Residency. The surgeon our temporary host. 105 

An asylum on the night of the assassination 158 

Resident at Khatmandu discourages our under- 
taking, but on further solicitation sent us pass- 
port 13 

Meeting with, in the jungle 52 

His return to the capital 161 



188 INDEX. 

Buddha. Statue of no 

Buffalo's milk at Rug-ganathpore 22 

Buffer States 3, 125 

Bullock caravan 41 

Bullock cart iQi 3° 

Bungalow. Stop at 18 

c 

Calcutta. Farther away, but nearer in time 15 

Returning to 175 

Arrival at. Journey's end 184-185 

Camera. Fortunate in bringing a 108 

Exquisite wood carvings photographed 112 

Experience with 1 13-130 

Canned provisions i q 

Capital punishment 144 

Cattle destroyed by wild beasts 39 

Child-marriages in vogue 134 

Chundragiri, Mt g8 

Cisagurdi. Climbing of 71 

Garrisoned pass 74 

Coolies, as carriers ig, 49, 50, 55, 57-97 

Honesty of 58 

Copper bell. Huge 130 

D 

Darjeeling, the starting point 10 

Descent to the plains 14 

Dead elephant, astonishing spectacle 46 

Dewali. Festival of. A night orgy ... 34-66 

Dharera pillar. View from 122 

Diwalgiri Mt 12 

E 

East, The. Attractive field for adventurous travel. . . 153 
East India Company. Its policy contrasted with that 

of present governuiont of India 4, 5, 6 



INDEX. 189 

Education. Native 136 

Ekka, a vehicle. Description of 20 

Mutinous driver deserts 27-28 

Everest, Mt 12, gg, 163 

F 

Flesh, what kinds as food 135 

French archaeologist in India 163 

G 

Ganges river. Crossing the 17 

Gosain Than, Mt 100 

H 

Harry. Illness of . . . . 71, 87, g6, 102 

Havildar, The. Our rude reception by 75 

He treats our perwana, or transport, with scorn. .83-88 

He weakens and yields 8g 

We " make up " and part as friends go 

On our return 182 

Himalayan bear. A disagreeable encounter 60 

Himalayas. First view of 32 

We enter the 36 

An ensemble 100 

I 

Imprisonment for life 144 

Indigo plantations 17 

Indra, The god. Brass thunderbolt of no 

Itinerary. Table of 105 

J 

Jungle. We plunge into the 34 

Justice : free from formalities and delay 144 

K 

Khatmandu, the capital city 13 

Scenery on approaching and first view of ... . gi 

Arrival at lOI 



19^ 



Filthy streets 126 

Inhabitants : various races 132 

Women, The 1 32, 133 

Kinchenjunga, Mt ■. '4-99 

L 

Languages. Parbatiya, modern Sanscrit 134 

Of the Newars, different .- . . . 134 

M 

Maharajah. Meaning of title 106 

Of Nepal 106, 107 

Necessity of audience with 108 

The audience 148 

The assassination 156 

A night of terror 157 

The new. Interview with 171 

Mail carriers : relays of runners 39. 40 

Manlifactures, native and British 131 

Markhu. Intense heat in valley of 93 

Great rise of, during freshets 93 

Matsiputra, Mt 100 

Mendicant priests 141 

Criminals in disguise as 141 

Monkeys. A hill infested with 109 

Monoliths, at Bhatgaon and elsewhere 161 

Mountain shrine. A Newar boy, as custodian to the 

gods 49 

N 

Nagarjun, Mt 121 

Nana Sahib 142 

Native manufactures 131 

Nepal : why so little known 6 

Its location, boundaries and climates 12 

Its capital^ Khatmandu 13 

British resident 13 

Valley of ■ 98 



INDEX. lyi 

Semi-tropical trees and birds 102 

Studied isolation of 103 

Standing army of 123 

Nyatpola Dewal. Temple of ■ 162 

P 

Palaces. Location of 145 

Pantheon of Hindoo deities 1 1 1 

Pashupati. Holy shrine of 113 

Persowny. Our host at 26 

Photographic experiences 311 

Polygamy : how regulated 134 

Ponies, under the saddle 20, 30, 40, 182 

Poultry : an amusing custom 139 

Powahs, or caravansaries 51 

Preparations for the start 9 

Primogeniture. Laws of 144 

Princely party, on elephants 95-102 



Queen Jetta Maharani. 

Her remarkable mount ..o .....<-... o 158 

R 

Races, various, in Khatmandu 132 

Railways : Narrow and standard gauge to Calcutta, 

Mokameh and Segowli 14, 16, 17 

Tirhoot State Railway 17 

Feasible route for, to India 104 

Raj Guru, The ; or archbishop 142 

Rakshi. Liquor distilled from rice 135 

Residency surgeon. His charity hospital 143 

Romance of travel. Then : now 9, 10 

Ruksoul : the boundary line 24 

Russian aggression. Apprehension of 3 



192 INDEX 

S 

Schools. Native 136 

Servant, Nepalese, for the journey 15 

Sir Jung Bahadur (the late). 

Fine roads constructed by 55, 72, 120 

Enlightened views of 129 

Palace of 145 

Siva. Huge figure of 120 

Slavery : existing in Nepal 140 

As a punishment for crime 140 

Prices of slaves 1 40 

Social customs of the capital 1 32 

Stone slabs, spots on, foreboding calamity ...... 121, 159 

Suttee : formerly committed by widows 114 

Swayambhunatha. Shrine of, in possession of mon- 
keys 1 09-1 1 2 

T 

Taxes 145 

Tea-drinking popular 136 

Terai Forest 30 

A malarious belt of jungle 32, 33 

Great trees in 35 

Tragic scenes 157 

W 

Water. Lack of pure 147 

Water-works suggested to the new government 172 

Wild beasts, destroy cattle 39 

Women of the capital 132, 133 

Wood carvings. Wonderful, photographed 112 

In great profusion 127 

Too often obscene 1 28 

Probably becoming a lost art 12S 

Very fine at Bhatgaon (ancient) i6i 

Y 
Yassa, Mt 12 



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